The story goes that when Communism collapsed in the 90s, all of the former national industries were quickly snapped up by a few wealthy and corrupt oligarchs, thus consolidating economic power in the hands of a few and severely limiting the economic potential of the new nation struggling with a sudden dive into the market economy.
However, where did these men come from in the first place? If capitalist profiteering was outlawed in the USSR, how did they have enough money to quickly snatch up all the resources?
hi everyone! Just a reminder to all prospective respondents of this sub's "20 year rule" against discussing current events. Kindly confine responses to events and conditions prior to 1994. Thanks!
There's Wiki page about privatisation in Russia you probably should look into.
Most important parts - voucher privatisation in 1992-1994 and share for loans in 1995. The latter created all well-known Russian oligarchs (Hodarkovsky, Berezovsky, Abramovich, you name it) and considered by most of the Russian population as a crime (explains despise most of the Russians held to oligarchs till this day).
There were attempts in late 90's to dispute share for loans scheme in court (it was obvious fraud), but all participants escaped any prosecution.
P.S. Important addition: share for loans auctions were conducted in 1995, at lowest popular support of president Yeltsin (~5%) amid disastrous economic situation, war in Chechnya, overwhelming crime wave and some of his personal "perks". It wasn't expected that Yeltsin gonna be re-elected during 1996 presidential elections, so by some experts share for loans auctions viewed as last attempt to steel as much as possible while he was still in office.
Also it's considered that 1996 presidential elections were rigged in favor of Yeltsin.