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In the year As a journalist in Russia in the 1990s, I reported on the way a small number of oligarchs acted as gangsters in the post-Soviet system. In 1996, following the Davos Accords, he intervened heavily to help the re-election of President Boris Yeltsin. Semibankershchina – or the rule of the seven bankers – until some oligarchs fell out with each other and, more importantly, with Yeltsin’s successor, Vladimir Putin.
As is sometimes said, history does not repeat itself, but often rhymes. And there are alarming echoes swirling around some of the conditions in the creation of an oligarchy in the US today. Amazing seven Technology companies. “Today, an oligarchy of immense wealth, power and influence is emerging in America that threatens our entire democracy,” Joe Biden warned this week. Farewell speech as president. Confronting this “technological industrial complex,” he said, was up to politicians, lawyers and the American public.
Led by Elon Musk 250 million dollars To help re-elect Donald Trump, tech giants are flocking to Mar-a-Lago to trade favors with the incoming president and donate to an information fund. What can we learn from the playbook and experience of their Russian forerunners?
Above all, as cool-headed businessmen, oligarchs expect a return on their investment. In Russia, Yukos, Sibneft and Norilsk Nickel have benefited from a botched privatization process that allowed them to seize control of the country’s most valuable oil and steel companies.
Nothing like that happens in the US. But Musk has already received an impressive return on his political investment. In the days since Trump’s re-election, Musk’s car company Tesla has soared, adding more than $300 billion to the stock market. They were also Reports Musk could end up owning TikTok’s US business if the Chinese parent company is forced to divest this month.
Musk’s fellow tech titans are also hoping for looser regulation — particularly around antitrust and crypto rules — and more support for their businesses. Meta’s one-time liberal CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was quickly swayed by gymnast Simone Biles’ leak of information on Facebook, and now Trump is urging Trump to protect the U.S. tech industry from foreign regulators.
Lacking institutional power, oligarchs deploy mass media tools to influence politics. Thus, in Russia, Vladimir Gusinsky headed the NTV channel and Sevodonia newspaper, while Boris Berezovsky controlled the ORT channel and the Kommersant paper. In the US, Musk has turned X into personal politics, where Zuckerberg runs Facebook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.
The Russian oligarchs themselves are working with the government to take over the government. Following Yeltsin’s re-election, Vladimir Potanin briefly served as First Deputy Prime Minister. Berezovsky was appointed deputy head of the Security Council. As Trump’s new proposed co-leader Department of Government EfficiencyMusk is not a regular government employee. But Doge is looking to post recruiters across Washington’s federal agencies to recommend ways to cut costs. Given Musk’s extensive business activities, conflicts of interest are a possibility.
But the biggest lesson we can take from Russia’s oligarchic era is that oligarchs are often poor at understanding politics. In Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky spent the next 10 years in prison for defying Putin. Now Putin tolerates only his own homegrown oligarchs who do the Kremlin’s bidding.
Being the ultimate narcissist Trump is, he doesn’t want to be ostracized by others. But the biggest danger for the US oligarchs may be the reaction from his enthusiastic magnate base. After clashing with Mack over immigration policy Steve BannonTrump’s former adviser has condemned the world’s richest man as a “truly evil man” and vowed to take him down.
Of course, America today differs from Russia in the 1990s in many ways. Moreover, stock market investors think that capitalist entrenchment in government will grow the economy, not destroy it. But U.S. oligarchs may yet recognize that power and political dynamics are universal, regardless of their differences with their Russian counterparts. Those who ride the political tiger – and slide – end up being victimized by it.
