It’s considered among knowledgeable circles that the creation of the Russia we know of today was largely the work of the “Chicago Boys” type group of economists who were sent to liberalize the Russian economy through “shock therapy”.

There are lots of well researched stories that show they did stupid badly thought of things such as, famously, handing over stocks in major companies to its workers, instantly making them shareholders.

That sounds fine in theory. But with poverty at their throat workers simply sold their sto luck to the first person who asked. Often these were people with “connections” or some money stashed away or criminally-funded “entrepreneurs”, who with some barebones organisation and planning could quickly scoop up billions of dollars worth of stock and take a controlling position in major companies by buying them cents for a dollar.

Thus the oligarchs were born which quickly led to the kleptocratic Russia we know of today.

Liberal minded and educated Russians realised western economists were annihilating their country. One well known Russian independent magazine called the newly rebuilt Russia a “neoliberal dystopia”. Which more and more I think of as quite accurate.