Putin To Use "Credit Sqeeze" To Destroy Oligarchs?

[Nitroadict]

I came across this on reddit, & am currently reading it over morning coffee, but thought I’d share it here due to one quote that almost made me spill my cup:

Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 vowing to destroy Russia’s oligarchs ``as a class.‘’ Within two years, he’d driven two into exile and imprisoned another.

Now, he may use the global markets meltdown to finish the job.

The $50 billion that the prime minister and President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to lend cash-strapped companies will extend state control over business leaders. Billionaires seeking bailouts – including Oleg Deripaska, Russia’s richest man, and Mikhail Fridman – will have to give authorities veto power over their companies’ financing decisions.

This will give the state more leverage over the country's biggest companies and main industries,'' said [Chris Weafer](http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Chris+Weafer&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp in Moscow. __In 2008, there is only one real oligarch: the state.‘’__

All this marks a reversal from a decade ago, when oligarchs bankrolled Boris Yeltsin’s almost-insolvent government. As recently as April, Russia’s 100 wealthiest citizens had a combined fortune equivalent to about a third of the economy, Forbes magazine estimated.

[source: here ]

I always thought the Russian’s politics were a bit odd (side note: studying Russia’s rather colorful history partially lead me to question the basis of government itself; studying napoleon et. all helped finish the job…), but I found this quizzically candid for such mainstream press.

Thoughts?

[Stranger]

Oleg Deripaska is already Putin’s man. There is no opposition left for him to destroy.

[Nitroadict]

@Stranger

Oleg Deripaska is already Putin’s man. There is no opposition left for him to destroy.

Perhaps; I just found it oddly humorous that in such a comment, admitting the state (should be, in their view) the only oligarch, with such language, yet many common folk reading the article would probably not read more into it.

[Stranger]

What Putin has done is, without a hint of irony, rebuild Russia on the fuhrerprinzip model: private property is encouraged at the will of the rulers, and if need be, at their disposal.