"And it's eerily similar to the double standards enjoyed by the apparatchiks back in the Soviet Union."
Yes, absolutely.
And there is yet another similarity: the #fascist movement in #Italy with its #BlackShirts came into existence b/c the #Italian landed gentry and industrialists were afraid of losing their property to the plebs, like their #Russian counterparts in the #OctoberRevolution of 1918.
...know however, that their story is crucial to understanding the rise of #Putin."
The need to radically reform the economy was unavoidable. The reasons for this, however, were the #OctoberRevolution and the subsequent decades of an economic system that cannot work, #communism.
Russian President
"#Yeltsin turned to the #Russian economists Yegor #Gaidar and Anatoly #Chubais, who, with the aid of Western..."