How Did Russian Oligarchs Get So Rich?
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- Опубликовано: 26 май 2022
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Russian Oligarchs have become synonymous with superyachts, luxury mansions and the shady political maneuvering of post-Soviet Russia. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian billionaires like Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Potanin, Alisher Usmanov and Oleg Deripaska have been all over the news.
The word Oligarch conjures up images of opportunistic, well-connected businessmen who made billions by plundering the remains of the collapsed Soviet state. But how exactly did Russia’s oligarchs get so rich?
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Might you be "Jennifer", the main writer?
Doctors as cap drivers? LoL
Cap driver was one of the most profitable and desirable jobs in Soviet Union...
You need to do your homework about communism and how dysfunctional and the tail wagging the dog it is...
@@SusieAspen Transparency is for others, not Pat, the founder of the newsletter.
You are wrong that in the soviet union everything was publicly owned and you couldn't start a private business. There was a lot of private businesses within the soviet union. Even heavy industries like mining was private in the soviet union.
Self employment was also common and legal.
Ushanka Show is a good RUclipsr from Ukraine who lived under the soviet system
Secondly, check out the privatization of Japan and the emergence of the zaibatsu.
Under capitalism, man exploits man.
Under communism, it is the other way around.
“In a country where the rule of law was frequently trumped by the rule of in-laws.” I love that turn of phrase and I’m stealing it.
Hey! Fancy seeing you here.
Love your videos!
@@fauxhound5061 just FYI that was a scammer replying, not the real P Boyle.
@@Kristjan_N a *scammer*? on *this* video?
@@zippy-zappa-zeppo-zorba-etc - Someone's automated a system of creating fake accounts looking like every single YT content creator and auto-replying in that channels' comments pretending to be them when they aren't. I've seen this on almost every video I've watched from many content creators and youtube has done nothing to stop it.
So that would be Hunter Biden?
Patrick, I'm typing this to you from a city in a European part of Russia. This is a stellar piece of content. You did an amazing job covering so many things at once, it was almost as if my dad was explaining the same thing to me - and my dad literally lived through all of these events.
Thank you for what you do, take care.
It's astonishing how almost the same events transpired at the same time in my smaller home country - Bulgaria. The inflation during the 90s transformed money enough to buy an apartment into money enough for a sack of potatoes. We literally started all over. The violent criminals started collecting tax from everybody in the form of "home security" business that was needed for you so they don't break your legs. After they collected a shitload of capital from the people and acquired many assets in the early 2000s they started moving into business. The same politicians who allowed the thugs to rob the average joe were replaced by the thugs themselves. Which lead to 15 years of Boyko Borisov - the stupidest piece of shit this country has ever seen. Stole billions. Nobody held him accountable. I wish somebody would offer solutions for those situations, we already have seen them and understand them, but seemingly there is no way out.
@@FBarbarian Nations are defined by nothing more or less than peoples' ability to organize themselves. If you choose a God Emperor instead of the Mayflower Compact, that's your problem. No one else can solve it for you--at least not in a way you'll like.
@@tianxiangxiong8223 I'm not sure I follow.
Not sure why you feel the need to emphasize European part of Russia?
@@makatogonzo I never gave it a second thought. I regularly use this expression at work. Is there a problem?
I lived through that. My father ended up owning a water tower. And he formed a co-op, which was registered to the water tower address. When the vouchers were distributed, most people weren't told what they were. The word "privatization" was just that - a word with no concept behind it. The video has it right about the post-soviet mentality and how it threw a wrench into the plans, that probably looked good on paper. Due to poor financial literacy, the system was indeed, flooded with scams, and people bought all of it without resistance. Oligarchs were waging wars on eachother. Plenty of assassinations over turf. New Russians were always targeted by smaller criminals. Protection rackets etc. Underground crime and private enterprise eventually reached a point of symbiosis, and they exist as such to this day.
sounds similar to nobility and their "hired goons"
Had an uncle who ended up with a moderate share in a medium sized chemical factory (detergents and such). Father received a smaller construction company. It wasn't all purely corruption, they both had worked at the top level of said companies all their lives. That said, a lot of the stuff that went on back then was totally corrupt. Many received apartments and buildings as simple favours, this realestate is now worth millions.
You had the robber baron era of our 1800's... you should read the cons and just evil twisted robber barons... here in Idaho... Boise had several water companies... they would literally poison one another wells... and other sabotage... and shoot outs... was real nuts.
The biggest oligarchs were actually questioned under trust busting era of the early 1900's... of course did they see prison? Nope. Of course not.
Oligarchs suck... they're the means by which the nation will find its death. Always.
A true gangster's paradise.
@@YawehthedragondogofEL Russia 90s
I really love the pacing of your videos. Traditional documentaries would be filled with a lot of fluff - family members, pets, properties of these oligarchs and so on, only to anyway say the same thing in the end - they got rich by seizing natural resources. Love this high-info-concentration style.
I've been saying this for years! I love how dense RUclips vids are compared to most professional docs.
This happened in my country (Czech Republic) as well - once the communist regime fell, the state assets ended in hands of the few people connected to the former regime (they had better information on which assets are most profitable), benefiting hugely. One such oligarchs - a former secret service member - even made it to a PM and now running for president. Unfortunately, people here are economically and financially so ignorant and uneducated they give this a pass.
his name?
@@Mahalakshmi-Khan Andrej Babiš
Damn I need for information about this
Never knew this happened beyond post soviet Russia
The US is also bad. The difference is billionaires in Russia took Russian assets. Rich people in the US take foreign assets. Some Americans did get rich with the fall
Of the USSR.
When iran democratically elected a leader and the leader wanted to nationalize oil the U.S. threw him
Out and put in a puppet. Then that guy was thrown out and the US embassy was over run. Rich people in the US just have the military do their dirty work or wet work. Hahahahahahaha Russian rich people uses gangs for corruption or to their benefit. Rich Americans just use the military for their benefit or corrupt schemes.
@@tony_5156 it happened in every former Warsaw Pact and CIS country
I sold my 10,000 R voucher at the time for 600 rubles to a solicitor on the street that was buying them from public, I used it to buy a Soviet made stereo that broke 3 days later because it started chewing my casette tapes and it drained batteries very quickly. If I knew that I could buy up more of these vouchers (shares) to buy a stake in a local factory I would have probably acted more strategically, however lacked any information as to what a heck was going in in the country as a high school student.and thats my Soviet to Russian story. Thank you Patrick for VERY accurate chronological history you are amazing you hit on points spot on as I was a witness to everything you said when I was in High School in Soviet Union/ Russia. Also its not "Chubai" it is "ChubaiS_ you pronounce the S
I'm so curios as to how it would have unwinded if people were told what exactly was going on and so didn't just blindly sell them away
Mate, you exchanged something worth 10.000 for 600.... you clearly are not the brightest guy in the area!!!
@@mikatu it's not a matter of bright or not. They lived in a time where just because someone says it's worth 10k doesn't mean it's worth 10k. He reasonably assumed it's worthless. He lacked knowledge.
@@mikatu People were swapping those vouchers because all their lives they had been told shares were worthless pieces of paper, the value of the ruble had collapsed and people were swapping them for a bottle of vodka or $20 us.
only one thing was missed:
Soviet companies were not really companies. They were subsidiaries of a very few very large vertically integrated companies. A factory might have an accountant but they were dealing with paying wages and inventories, and very likely not with depreciation or return on investment or EBITDA. All these specialized functions were fulfilled by small bureaucrats likely not party members that worked directly for the government. The banks were not for commercial banks, they were government departments. Factories received money from the government through the banks and produced what the government believed was needed. Research was not done by factories, there were separate research institutes that answered only to the government.
The local managers were not really managers in an economic sense of the word: they were more like foremen than CEOs, and implemented directives received from the government.
When privatization happened local "companies" that were previously very simple subsidiaries with the minimum of management were left loose. Imagine all the Apple shops becoming independent companies, or the the consumer Windows division, the Windows server division, the research division and the upper management with their auxiliaries becoming four independent companies, then every separate office building of these newly created companies becoming independent if they were located in another town.
Then these companies were not all run as profit centers.
Then since the 1960s Soviet Union had introduced a version of the JIT: not everywhere but they tended to work with small buffers and not produce to stock. This was not an exception, Soviet Union adopted Fordism/interchangeable parts produced to standards since the 1920, while Western Germany and UK still had difficulties understanding the concept during the 1980s.
On top of these huge vertically integrated companies were the Party elites. By the late '80s the party elites were the third generation, those who got their jobs by getting good grades in school at literature, philosophy, Math and maybe Marxism-Leninism and being born in the right family. They did not understand free markets: they understood monopolist capitalism XIXth century style very well though, that was the Capitalism their grandparents and parents fought against. They did not understand how the economy of the Soviet Union worked: during late '80s after the first wave of very limited liberalization the production of food increased slightly, and they extrapolated that to the whole economy and decided they no longer needed central planning, liberalization will fix everything. When they decided that central planning was obsolete, the whole Soviet Union project was perceived as obsolete :-): free market solved the supply of strawberries, this means free market can solve everything: yes, the success a limited right to free enterprise had in increasing the supply of strawberries was a subject of economic projection on the Moskva 1 TV station in 1988 or 1989 (I remember because the strawberry season had already passed in Romania and we were living very close to the border and could receive one Russian and one Ukrainian TV station). The same projection happened in Romania in 1990: I think it was the prime minister Petre Roman (second generation Party but very well educated in languages, philosophy and literature) who was talking on TV about one third of the land (which was cultivated directly) producing 2/3 of the food in Romania, and about how much was going to be produced if all the land would be given to the former members of the state ran farms :-) .
When central planning stopped they were left with the people who knew what to do but were living without any authority in Moscow (lots emigrated and did well abroad) or in regional centers, and with theoretically powerful local "managers" and "accountants" that had little experience actually running companies, and with a former Party elite that controlled the government but really understood very little (proof: after losing his job Gorbachev lived from a government pension and conference fees).
Now imagine the managers of the companies that were producing exactly what their downstream consumers needed, then the official link between them is severed, financing is severed, their link to the shops (assuming they were producing for the consumer market) is gone and those managers who only used to walk around looking fearsome, and signing documents sent from the center, and their accountants who were experienced in doing payrolls, had to find their equivalents in other companies, strike deals, find money from somewhere to keep things going another day until production adjusted to the new conditions.
It is possible that all the thieving and cheating saved Russia :-).
If you follow Rus history where under Romanov dynasty Rus Slavs lived not bad as after Bolsheviks as majority were Jews took over Rus land and started to destroy Slavs live!!!
@@TopNetWorldUh huh. Tell us your antisemitic without telling us your antisemitic.
@@Oblivisci........ there is not such Semitic slang. Its just criminality defending themselves against their occupation other territories and killing other nations. At least look the Rus history. What they did with Romanov family then famine in Povolzhie, Ukraine all their names were there. Gulag and WWII. How about Zionist and look how Zelenskyy never being Ukrainian killing Ukrainians
Great vid, I'm from Bulgaria which is a microcosm of everything described. Same tactics (often supported by Russia), just our oligarchs are poorer, since there is less to steal, and since we managed to politically align with the West, there are some controls preventing total corruption. But oligarchs still very powerful to this day!
often supported by Russia ? :))) are u crazy ? Where do your oligarchs keep their money? In Russian banks? :))) NO!!! In LONDON and NY
So its a feature Not a a Bug ?
It is often said around me that post-Soviet Russia is in many ways worse than during Soviet rule, but no one has ever been able to explain to me why other than "it is corrupt." Thank you for taking the time to organize this video and enlighten me on the subject. Everything makes so much sense now!
Funny the explanation they gave you "it is corrupt." , it's the reason soviet union collapsed in the first place so go figure.
I'm not from Russia but east Europe, kind of same transition.
People that complain about the post soviet era, were used to get feed by the state, and be equality poor.
While autocracy remains a problem in most east Europe, as an individual you are free to grown as long as you don't invest yourself in to combating the state. Much like some liberal politics in the west, like this so called human rights that are a red line, and you get cancelled for calling out a 'protected group'.
In Russia it is more complicated.
A) East europe heavily subsidied Soviet Union by military buys.
B) There was far higher censorship rate then in today's Russia.
C) Russian economy is based on natural resources so communism was not so terrible system for Russia, unlike Eastern Europe which became extremely rich after switching to capitalism and joining EU.
@@stupidbro2301 no, many countries who joined are still poor..
Patrick explains this by saying that most Russians had become so beaten down by then that they had simply learnt to live under the regime. Then this chaotic rush to reform occurred, and those people were thrown out of their comfort zones.
So its easy to understand that they preferred their comfort zone, despite the fact that communism in the USSR had been truly brutal, particularly in the early days.
@@lieshtmeiser5542 I mean what a truly useless statement, spoilers; Capitalism was and still is brutal AF, so please elaborate on your utterly useless statement here?
There are ways to criticize Communism and totalitarian regimes and then there is you, just showing off the propaganda you been fed, whatever floats your boat I guess...
I gleaned some of this information from other sources.
However, this video was the most in-depth look at the oligarchs I have ever seen. It is exceptional.
Thank you Patrick for all of the great research you did to provide us with is information. It's amazing!
Pretty well explained what had happened to my country. Every time I am listening to this or trying to tell others about it I feel almost physical pain what happened then. Imagine living in society, maybe not perfect, but with a thought- it’s all OURS (like say National parks in some countries), schools, factories, forests , hospitals, plants ;and suddenly someone claims it and you can not use it anymore ( or certainly it becomes NOT OURS, meaning NOT MY too). I lived there in 90s and can vouch almost for everything that was said. I did not know about that 51% share rule. I just saw how directors and their accountants ( who’s paycheque was maybe just two or three times more of worker ) suddenly became owners of whole factories basically for free ( before the whole factory belonged to government). And yes, no one went to protest, because not one had experience of shareholding, since there were all government entities ( say like government schools or hospitals in capitalistic countries).Unfairness on the greatest scale. I even dare to say, if privatisation was done better and not such disparities were created , if everyone could feel that they could do business big or small from privatisation, probably even recent big conflict would not be possible , because who really wants to die for money in foreign land in mass. But now it is so easy to coerce poor young soldier to fight since in such rich country he doesn’t have any other prospects to live for, been robbed by oligarchs.
Yeah living ur life believing one thing and suddenly everything gets changed, where u had a comfortable pay check to be told to take all the risk, not hard to see y so many didn't buy up shares. Libya is not that far off
And going off to fight the battles ov the wealthy folks while they refuse to send their kids is also extremely unfair!
War is just another tool ov the elites to control the poor.
It's very strange ... I thought I was the only one feeling this physical pain when someone describes the situation in eastern countries. I was born in Poland, but I don't live there anymore. The same thing happened to us. And now, instead of helping each other, we fight each other.
@@worldcitizen9847 Thanks. I am with you.
This does raise an interesting question from an academic perspective - during the Soviet era, capitalism was presented as the worst thing that could happen. When the Soviet Union fell and modern Russia attempted introducing the population to economic concepts like being a shareholder, it was heavily exploited by those in the know and the average citizen only saw that it doesn't work. It could be seen as a prophecy come true for some.
How much of modern Russian perception of the west's economic practices has been influenced by that period?
Very good presentation, but one thing missing from this explanation, and its a very common mistake since Patrick looks at Russia through western eyes. Thing is all those three groups of oligarchs were not random sneaky go-getters, they were 'allowed' to privatize assets because they belong to certain ruling soviet clans that took roots in the past. Further examination would show, that they were merely a walking wallets even during the Eltsins period, and they never had any significant political power, despite a common misconception that they did. Putin did not change the system, he is a talking head of his St. Peterburgs clan, and they just raided other oligarchs from another Muskovite clan, which had strong connections to Eastern Ukraine and Dnipro, because once in soviet union Donetsk-Dnipro clan moved to Moscow as a dominant one when Khruschev and Brezhnev were in power. They brought their fellow east ukrainians (friends and relatives) and gave them positions in Soviet elite after Stalins death.
wow, that explains a lot why Putin ain't touching Petersburger rioters.... his own keep. Awesome
@@vxcvxcvvxvc Its more nuanced than that. Exclude commoners from the equation, they are outside of clans.
Also germans know to have informed their folks that most russian mafia and so on were in touch if not totally former Gru/FsB/Gru/Ministry of Inerior and so on.
@@mrjozo-pr6ih there were two kinds of russian mafia in 90-s: former military men and ex-special forces that suddenly lost their jobs, and legacy mafia that operated since the beginning of the 20s century. They had a very big conflict in 90s, since ex-military guys completely disrespected traditions and rules of old-school mafia (vori v zakone).
@@burgersuperking I heard back in the 90s that some of the oligarchs were simple ultra violent mafia, they would simply acquire the notes given to people by robbing them, chopping off their heads if they refuse to hand them over.
"In a country where the rule of law is frequently trumped by the rule of in-laws." That line alone is already genius!
In the Baltics, my dad was dealing in Led Zeppelin vinyls. That said, Baltics were far more liberalised compared to Russia.
When I was in college, a classmate asked me if I wanted to get into scheme involving buying up workers allocations to buy up their assets. He said for $100k, I could own a share of a mine with him and his family. Since he was studying in the US I assume his family were pretty connected insiders. I didn't have $1000 much less $100k and I knew a lot of scams were going on. He went on to work for Goldman Sachs and is pretty wealthy. Interesting times.
He might work now for GS but back then if you had sunk in the $100K, then you, more than likely been fleeced like a sheep in AUS. ruclips.net/video/CIRNygP6-fk/видео.html
Kinda sounds like a bit of a shitbag. I'm sure you can't help but wonder "what if", but at least you (presumably) have your dignity intact.
Disappointing.
Goldman Sachs probably financed the $100K and made billions, they rewards him with a nice cushy job
To say that the times were “Interesting” is an insult to people who weren’t able to afford to eat… the russians were literally robbed of their own assets
I worked in an earlier soviet Republic in the middle of the 90'ties, only a few years after the collapse of the soviet Union, and one of the locals had married and was about to get an apartment, and he told us westerners that he was even struggling to understand the concept of interest, it was for him totally unknown word when he contacted the bank for a loan
Wow! No housing market volatility! No dependency on home loans and refinancing to provide a borrowed national money supply. Down with bank-credit system macro usury. QUESTION:
Should Congress end the banking system's power to create and destroy bank-credit-deposit money supply and should Congress replace that system with permanent national fiat money provided as a public utility and distributed to citizens to spend into circulation for true consumer sovereignty, economic democracy and freedom from ever-mounting unpayable macro-debt and recurring deflationary spirals?
@@richardeastman9846 - the thing is, economical laws are still ruling activity in the society no matter what politicians are doing, like here where I live, until early 80'ties everything was regulated by the politicians, so we had an official price, typically on real estate etc, set by our politicians, and then an additional unofficial price, we called "under the table" so, what you probably call "capitalism" is not anything else than economical laws of nature, there is no way to get away from it
Because he’s a dumb orc who can’t learn
"Economic Shock Therapy"... I died! LOL🤣
It worked for Poland interestingly
as a Pole I totally agree: in '90s there was just not enough to steal here.
Didn't Poland famously implement some very effective anti-corruption measures?
If there wasnt enough to steal in poland then how come kulczyk happened?? Less doesnt mean zero fraud
@@somethinglikethat2176 they did some but nothing ground breaking to be honest.
Hungarys some of the top 10 rich guys got rich the same way when privatization begun in 1990....for the record old lefties whomst money were more or less taken by the new guys of Orbán, became the first oligarchs in Hungary. And it isn't new in east Europe.... Since Hungary entered the EU, even more money got stolen what should have landed at the normal people, but arrives into the pocket of Lorinc Meszaros, Orbans private property, I mean right hand. Most sectors became the oligarchs private property from tourism (Orbans daughter leads the Tourism bureau which is a life and death decider in Hungary about who gets what EU money) to mostly all the fields producing wheat and exporting to globally. Even tho there is an export ban, Orbans favorite oligarchs still can do.... Energy sector is the same, like MET AG based in Switzerland, is an ex communist oligarchs founded middle men between Russia and Hungary, bought cheap energy and sold to Hungary making billions of dollars. The list is long, east Europe sank in corruption and feudalism long time ago
that explains Orbans love for autocracy and russia
that explains orbans love for putin
Wow, this explains Orban's sabotage of EU sanctions and support for Ukraine.
This was fantastic. What a great summary of quite a long and complex subject matter. Would be great for most people in the world to understand this. Thanks Patrick!
That's one of the best pocket squares I have ever seen
My uncle was a kind of mayor of a small yet capital town of an oil-mining region in western Siberia in the 80s-90s. Now he owns a pretty big (non-government) tv channel and some other businesses. My mother was telling stories about how such entrepreneurial people were buying vouchers for bottles of vodka. I also heard stories that some of our relatives were in the middle of a process of privatization of their primary residences, though it was in the late 2000s. But I know a person who could hold her voucher and buy a piece of Gazprom: now the dividends are covering her rent easily
By the way, you can still buy a solid plot of land in Russia for something like $300/acre, because those people still have no idea what to do with that land acquired during the privatization. You'll have to do a hell of a job to find that plot of land though, but it is still possible :D
Yes, we all agree that the Bolshevik revolution brought you back to the stone age. What we can't understand is why you did it.
@@rafanadir6958 the Bolshevik revolution? What are you talking about? The Soviets developed their economy and scientific apparatus to rival the West in much less time lol.
@@hemiedwards217 Rival? You must be young if you believe that. If you are not young then you are ignorant or foolish.
@@hemiedwards217
And then it all fell apart in much less time due to the lack of reinvestment because the Soviet economy was too limited and tied to the military to support anything else.
we missed you , don't disappear again, your content is like a breath of fresh air in this youtube jungle.
Great video Patrick and very accurate. Im impressed.
I recognized Romanian privatization in the 90's in almost everything you said about Russia.
In 1993 I was working on a law journal article about Chubais' plan for privatization until the Kremlin tanked it. Amazing that was 30 years ago.
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Hello Patric! Love the material as always 😀
How would you score the Polish transformation made by professor Leszek Balcerowicz?
"The architects of Russian privatization were aware of the dangers of these problems at the time, but they predicted that institutions would come into being as soon as private property was created, rather than it being necessary to put these institutions in place to begin with."
This was by design. IMF, WB, Bank leach.
“Shock Therapy” almost spit my coffee out… Bravo 👌
Thank God you're fine. I just saw Multiverse of Madness
Multiverse of madness lol
BAHAHAHA 💀
I just learned more in the last 30 minutes than I have in the past 30 years. Great work in education.
Usually this is the moment when you should ask yourself if someone is telling you bollocks.
I love how you explained somethings that I think is trivial to you: the meaning of oligarch. I always assumed it was something about oil but now it makes so much more sense! Thanks so much for this video, Patrick!!
I'm amazed at how well informed you are on the subject, well done!
He's british, brits knows whats up with russian oligarch. You could even say they are expert at knowing their financial need Kappa
@@Qwairy no he's irish...
@@sini81rs : Nah, he's a very tall leprechaun.
Central planning often overlooks minor details. Like food.
Natural resources being a curse once again.
Also, I have to say a few things about how the coupon privatisation played out in Czechoslovakia (or Czechia, which is my country of origin, even though I was still born in Czechoslovakia, one of the last children of the Federation) because that is my childhood. Of course, there has been a lot of scams, ponzis and looting (or as we said "tunneling") there, but the public was very strongly opposed to that and basically the whole 90s and 2000s were dominated by the topic of fighting corruption and wastage of public money. The mafia leaders (including Russian and Ukrainian mafia clans) were actively fought against and governments ended over corruption charges. This lead to the public and business space actually clearing up and with Japanese and Taiwanese investments in industry made Czechia probably the most successful post-communist country (maybe Slovenia is better, I don't know). This "cleansing" culture sadly ended when one of the survivng oligarchs, a Slovak called Andrej Babiš became the prime minister but his leftist-populist platform (which can't even be called a party because that implies a presence of ideology and they frankly have only two pieces of ideology - being unimaginative burreaucrats and shielding their company's boss) got voted out last year so I hope he can finally stand trial for stealing a few million euros from EU subsidies... Or maybe poor people make him a president which would render him immune to prosecution next year, I don't know.
You didn’t explain what happened to the Czech voucher privatisation.
"made Czechia probably the most successful post-communist country (maybe Slovenia is better, I don't know)"
If we use real (PPP) GDP per capita as the metric then that seems to indeed be the case. Slovenia is slightly behind (and Estonia is slightly behind them) though the differences are fairly small.
@@seneca983 In order: Slovenia, Czechia (up until here higher GDP-PPP/person than Spain), Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary (up until here higher GDP-PPP/person than Portugal, Greenland and Turkey), Slovakia and Latvia are best-of than there's this middle ground with Romania, Croatia (up until here all higher GDP-PPP/person than Greece), [here would be Russia before the war and everything], Bulgaria (up until here higher GDP-PPP/person than Chile, Argentina, Uruguay), Montenegro and Serbia and at the end there is Belarus (up until here higher GDP-PPP/person than the world average), Georgia, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania (up until here higher GDP-PPP/person than Brazil), Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova (up until here higher GDP-PPP/person than Egypt and South Africa), Kosovo and Ukraine. [Not accounting for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Also not accounting for Transnistria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia].
All are under the EU average GDP-PPP/person.
Great video, filled in a lot questions I had been wondering about.
Amazing history lesson. They should teach this stuff at school!
Thank you for this video! I, as young Russian, have only heard about this, but never researched this theme, very informative)
Khodorkovsky was one of the main beneficiaries of the privatisation, acquiring some of the biggest portion of the shares then formed Yukos. He was the first oligarch targeted by Putin to comply with the state, as they were influencing the government. Its not just about some accusation during a TV show.
same thing happened in Romania. The "boys" from the second strata of the communist party, from the securitate (Romanian kgb) and some streetwise guys (who had foreign currency even in the communist times) quickly took over the state owned enterprises, sold them for scrap and real estate. As for natural resources they eventually got into foreign ownership. Alot of them are politicians, media moguls now, giving financial advices and writing their memoirs and getting fat pensions. One of the dumber one got to be vice-president of NATO and former ambassador to the US. I remember my parents getting ownership coupons at a carpet factory in town which we didn't even know existed :))
thanks for teaching me finans, informing me, and inspiring me Patrick. Much love from Denmark.
btw. to people more interested in this subject. The book Red Notice is an entertaining read on this matter.
Glad you are enjoying the videos.
Wow. This is the most insightful review of this subject I’ve come across. Even more so than documentaries more than twice the length from sources like DW. Great work, thank you Patrick.
Check out the "Sale Of The Century" by Chrystia Freeland, who was a reporter for the Financial Times in Moscow at the time of the rise of the Oligarchs. Freeland is currently Canada's Deputy Prime Minister.
You left out the part of the story about how the Russians and Czechs came up with the voucher system. It was a group of Harvard economists that went to Russia to consult them on the introduction of free-market reforms so US multinationals could buy up foreign assets for pennies on the dollar. Jeffrey Sachs resigned in protest and Michael Hudson lobbied congress to investigate the group. The Nation published an article about the whole story called "The Harvard boys do Russia".
Yes, this is the single aspect to post-Soviet privatisation I've heard about that wasn't mentioned in this video but I'm not going to complain this was the most excellent, comprehensive and concise summary I've ever come across. Perhaps the "less deserving" thieves and rent-seekers that the "perceptive Russians" were racing to beat was Wall St money, who would have plundered and offshored all that resource wealth just the same.
This is excellent, your best one imo. Incredibly interesting, I sense a lot of research went into this.
My new favorite channel. Keep it up Pat! Enjoying catching up on the content
Another home run video!! Appreciate all of the research you put into your content
you love your research ......... thank you for making it easier for a lazy guy like myself to actually learn what's really going on around here these days ......... and back in those days
GREAT report! I listened very carefully and learned allot.
Fantastic Video! Very informative! Every minute of it was very enjoyable.
Fantastic video. Very informative! The format is spot on!
Patrick, I am so happy for you! I can't believe how much you've grown! I've been with you and your journey since 30k subscribers. I am so glad to hear about sponsorships, Patrons and still the great quality content. I have to admit, you got more engaging. Please sneak in your dry pan humor from time to time! :)
Reminds me of the privatisation of the power companies in New Zealand.
One of the pictures has Arcadiy Volozh. Quite unfair, given that he has built Yandex from scratch, building himself with his cofounder some of the technologies behind Yandex’es search engine. Otherwise most of the video is true
No one gets rich in a totalitarian state without the dictator's approval.
Amazing work on this video!
that was very informative,thanks for explaining the situation so clearly,I hope more people will see this
The fallacy behind Russian privatisation is the notion that markets and market thinking comes naturally to people.
In fact successful markets are historical outcome dependent on a culture of legality, non-sentimental decision making, as well as sophisticated notions such as time value of money that many in the West still have trouble grasping.
Markets fail even in places that take liberal thinking for granted as for example the Global Financial Crisis and most vids from Patrick Boyle. To expect markets to work in a place like the new Russian state was silly and arrogant beyond words.
Hindsight is 20/20.
This sequence of events was set up by design by the "liberals" in the government and their western backers. Replace "silly and arrogant" with corrupt and compromised by western interests.
Most people don't know what markets are lol.
Interesting opinions and critiques but zero information put forward as to why they should be believed.
Or even simpler fact that money is just loans and yout pay is always someone else's loan.
Very well done and informative! Thanks.
Patrick, well done. I appreciate all that you do.
The first law Putin signed as the new boss was Yeltsin and his family could not be investigated for crimes. Bribes, extortion, kickbacks, etc.
Poland isn’t only rich in coal.
They also the world’s fifth largest producer of silver. (Lubmin mine, now run by Belgian refinery Umicore.)
Wow, I'm from Poland, but didn't know that - thanks!
Incredible work, first time seening such an interesting subject
this is one of very few channels where I immediately click on a new video when I see one (or at least, one I haven't seen)... keep up the good work
Fascinating video, thank you!
I remember the voucher scheme in Czechoslovakia as a kid. What a shitshow that was. Same with the apartments. I remember the hallway floor caving in in our building. Nobody knew where to turn to get this fixed haha
Fascinating history lesson, thanks!
This was fascinating!
Great presentation. The tragedy was tremendous for the ex-USSR. These people deserve a break and our compassion. The economic shock and awe in the 90s was an ill-conceived way to bring capitalism and democracy in a hurry. Too theoretical and based on really poor assumptions. History tells us that good things take time……anything sped up like that only leads to tragic outcomes.
That was actually the point; weaken Russia and all of the other soviet states and satellites.
@@ShadowMind312 Yes. It was a deliberate, well-conceived plan by Russia's enemies to subjugate Russia.
@@ShadowMind312 So sad. I thought some of the Harvard boys (like Jeff Sachs) actually meant well.
Yeah its obvious a lesson not written in blood is lesson not learned.
You think the goal was democracy? The goal was to loot the commons and they did. This episode is a great example of what capitalism really is. The vultures got what they wanted.
Love this channel!!
My absolute favourite youtuber! Thanks so much.
Absolutely fascinating! Fantastic video 🤌🏼
Great video as always Patrick, so well researched.
Just wanted to point out one small detail: the guy on the bottom right at 16:30 is Arcady Volozh. He’s a co-founder of Yandex, and a brilliant guy who built his wealth from scratch - despite the Russian state, not thanks to it.
You should never grocery shop when you’re hungry and you should never transition your communist economy to one based on Hungary. In both instances you get the wrong food.
This video is surprisingly accurate. Well done.
Exceptional video Patrick
Can we get an animated version from "OverSimplified" . I think it would be a good subject.
I felt like I was back at school again. I guess it's because this seems like an important part of history that I've never learned about.
russian privatization was so bad that china don't privatized it state owned companies but hire a professional ceo and some government loan to upgrade their compititiveness instead.
Love the longer vid!
Great video!! I could not stop relating this with my home country, same situation happened with privatization of telephone company TELMEX back in the 80s. Which make the new owner the richest man on earth for quiet some years.
I grew up in Russia in the 1990-s and this video is just incredible, I learned some things I didn't know. Just 2 small notes: the s in Chubais is pronounced, you pronounce it like Chubai. And you didn't mention Yegor Gaidar who was the main architect of the shock therapy and was heavily involved in the privatization.
The anarchy of the 1990-s is one of the big factors that enabled Putin to consolidate all power in his hands and get where he is today. People were ready to put up with censorship and autocracy rather than risk returning to that decade.
Yeltsin's coup in 1993 is also important as it crippled parliament and created the presidential system that Putin inherited.
This is really excellent work
Amazing content! Thanks.
The short answer: In some instances they showed initiative and worked hard. In other instances (unfortunately likely constituting the majority), they lied, cheated and stole their way to it.
Great economic history lesson. Putin has become a czar; the Oligarchs are Boyars; the church, security forces, and functionaries remain the same; and everyone else is a Serf. Its hard to escape history and culture.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Superb coverage
Some of these guys are only "managers"/officers of state-owned enterprises. They get the superyachts and the other bling but the citizen owners get zilch.
In that sense, the privatization of China was done relatively fair in the late 80s and early 90s. A lot of average Joes were able to benefit from it as I have withness as a kid. Most people(in the cities) were able to experience improvement of living standard until...
What? The thing where absolutely nothing happened in Tiananmen?
Hi Patrick. Does your book (stays for trading floor) have solutions to end of chapter questions? Are they online anywhere? Thanks
Appreciate your work
OMG very good video 👍
Thank you.
Very much liked the trow in of “Homo Economicus” a formal construct (as I understand it), and then the story unraveling…
Also about how economics and power and society interplays, we might not yet know all about Russian society (the dark part of society), hinted by high numbers of oligarchs and others high profile Russian “falling to death from windows of their houses”.
In the current state of affairs, I would like to see more discussion on possible natural breakup of Russian Federation (but not necessarily public discussion), the addressing of “too big to fail mindset” in all of its dimensions (and be sure to include Macron’s foreign policy top advisors in it, those of flexible thinking 🤣)
This reminds me a bit of when mexico privetized its business, they were always sold to some family member or close friend of the current goverment top officials.
Like carlos slim who bought telemex and became the richest man in mexico.
This is similar to what happened during the "coupon privitisation" in the Czech Republic, although likely on a smaller scale.
An interesting pattern to observe: Eastern European oligarchs are disproportionately from two ethnic groups that were engaged in slave trade during the middle ages, one of them being uhh, the Tatars.
If only stronger US or international extraterritorial actions were present at that time or AML practices were enforced as today or Internet became widely available earlier (allowing for more equal access to info for all shareholders/citizens) or if those responsible for crimes against humanity and corrupted were finally held accountable in late USSR. If global institutions like IMF, WB were capable of providing support in exchange for closely watched reforms… perhaps people wouldn’t have suffered as much and felt so humiliated as to support new power, or at least would have held it accountable. Desperate last hopes gave it unlimited force without control as voters lost all belief even in possibility of checks and balances. And leadership used its position to fuel more national anger to outside world.
World changes fast, we can’t demand from those times what we enjoy today. Think how New York was almost ruled in 1970s by organised crime… then it doesn’t surprise how little attention went to what happened just 20 years later so far away, too many were simply naively happy that Cold War was over.
Hope the lesson is learnt that corruption is not just economically inefficient, it leads to tragedy just as record growing inequalities/injustices, and nobody can afford to ignore it. Many other accountability issues elsewhere in the world still though, crises waiting to happen… privileges such as wealth or even voting rights in functioning democracy come with responsibilities.
Excellent point.
Excellent! Patrick should be a regular guess on the "news" shows but I don't think they would go for his calm, to the point, pragmatic and concise way of presenting information. That's not what they are about.
This was very helpful, thank you
I never knew how to take Khodorkovsky? Where did he come from of the three options you described as the usual origins of the "oligarchs"? .Aren't the oligarchs doing almost the same for the Russian state as the old aristocracy - Boyars - used to perform for the Tsar? I think all the European aristocracies were expected to dig deep into their wealth - especially in times of war. The usually dispensation from taxation was ideally based on the fact that in times of crisis they were expected to spend massively. I used to know a man from Cuba who told me that the old spanish grandess would sometimes wipe out their family lines in service to the king. He had been a supporter of Castro as a young student of architecture and engineering. He fled when Castro nationalized his family farm.
That is so not New England! But it is some kind of breathtaking.