Author: Hazel Ruiz

In the murky, often contradictory architecture of Russian power, the oligarch occupies a strange and paradoxical position. He is at once a product of the state’s chaotic retreat in the 1990s and a creature entirely dependent on its current, rigid…

In the sprawling, often murky architecture of Russian political power, the oligarch occupies a strange and contradictory position. To the outside world, they are the poster children of post-Soviet excess—superyachts, London mansions, and bitter legal feuds in Swiss courts. But…

The Gilded Cage: How Oligarchs Keep Russia’s Political Order Standing In the sprawling, often brutal story of post-Soviet Russia, the word “oligarch” has become a lazy catch-all. It conjures images of super-yachts, London football clubs, and extravagant mansions bought with…

The Unwritten Contract: Wealth, Loyalty, and the Kremlin’s Survival When we talk about the modern Russian state, we often fixate on the security services, the propaganda machine, or the mechanics of rigged elections. But that misses a quieter, more structural…

In the sprawling, often opaque architecture of Russian political power, the oligarchs are not simply rich men with political connections—they are load-bearing walls. Their fortunes, forged in the chaotic privatizations of the 1990s and later recast under Vladimir Putin, serve…