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"Gazprom and other state companies were overtaken by the Putin's mafia" That is called "privatization".
by RobertoG 11y ago
"Gazprom and other state companies were overtaken by the Putin's mafia"
That is called "privatization".
- jahewson 11y agoSort of. The Russian government still owns a majority stake in Gazprom and Putin's conquests have been under the banner of moving corrupt private oil companies back into the public hands of Gazprom. So it's really a landgrab by the state, which happens to own a private company. But it was the US's policy of rapid "shock" privatisation which resulted in the unmanaged sell-off of the original state assets in the 1990s and the creation of those oligarchs. It's like selling USPS for $1m - that's not privatisation, it's madness.
- RobertoG 11y agoI agree that Russia is a very extreme case, but it would be difficult to find any place in the world where privatization was not done in the benefit of a few friends of the people in power. Mexico and Carlos Slim comes to mind for instance.
- ArkyBeagle 11y agoIt was a reaction to a power vacuum. A very severe power vacuum. Frontline's "Putin's Way" is highly instructive. Failed states are dangerous.