In the glossy Western imagination, the Russian oligarch is a cartoon villain: a brute in a Brioni suit, anchored to a superyacht, buying up football clubs and London penthouses with the spoils of a fallen empire. That picture isn’t wrong,…
The Gilded Cage: How Oligarchs Keep the Kremlin in Power
In the dim corridors of Russian power, the bond between the state and its wealthiest tycoons is often mistaken for a simple protection racket—cash for cover. The truth is far more tangled. The oligarchs, once seen as independent kingmakers, have…
The Gilded Cage: How Oligarchs Fortify Regime Stability in Russia
The relationship between vast private wealth and state power in Russia is often misread as a simple shakedown. The usual story goes that a weak state got captured by greedy tycoons, or that a strong state crushed them entirely. The…
The Narrative Assembly Line: How Russian Think Tanks Manufacture Regime Expertise
In late 2023, the Russian International Affairs Council—RIAC, a think tank with a polished website, English-language output, and a stable of scholars who hold degrees from European universities—published a report called Russia’s Economic Sovereignty Under Sanctions: Adaptation Strategies for 2024–2026.…
The Gilded Cage: How Oligarchs Prop Up the Kremlin’s System
In the smoke-choked private rooms of Moscow’s elite, a quiet transaction takes place every day. It’s not a business deal in the traditional sense. It’s the exchange of fealty for a license to exist. The Russian oligarch—often painted in the…