How Did They Get Rich?

Abstract

One might argue – and indeed the author has some sympathy for the view – that today it is not how the oligarchs gained their wealth and power that is important, but what they did with them once gained. If overall they have made good use of their assets, and if one sees the oligarch phenomenon as a normal stage on the road to ‘normal’ capitalism, then we might forgive them any sins in the past. Even if they have misused their assets, to dispossess them of those assets might raise such difficult problems that it could well not be worth it.