The mystery of Russia's missing wealth shows how Putin retains his power
Russia is a nuclear power. But an economic power it is not. Last year, the country’s GDP totaled around $1.6 trillion, less than that of the state of Texas. Nor is its wealth growing: Russia’s GDP in 2017 was smaller than it was in 2013, adjusting for price changes.
And yet there’s no question of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s international influence. Witness his ability to hack bigger, richer countries’ democratic elections, or, as this week’s Helsinki summit highlighted, to cow Donald Trump. The Kremlin’s knack for punching above its weight when it comes to geopolitics is a reminder that wealth sometimes matter less than what you do with it.
Or, more precisely, to whom you give it. Oligarchs are an essential part of Putin’s power apparatus. And as a recent working paper (pdf) by economists Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, and Filip Novokmet reveals, the wealth that won their fealty came directly from the country’s reserves—and, indeed, from the pockets of the Russian people.
By any reckoning, Russia should be rich. It has a bounty of natural resources—oil and gas, obviously, but also coal, grains, seafood, and vast stores of minerals. Though it exported little under the Soviet regime, that changed rapidly after its collapse in 1991. Between 1993 and 2015, Russia exported around 10% more each year, on average, than it imported.
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This is exactly what the super-rich of America want to do, divide up the financial bounty among themselves and pay no taxes to support our government. I'm sure the Russians have ways to avoid reporting income, by hiding it in foreign banks. Meanwhile they all pay tribute to Putin who allows them to get away with it. Vladimir Putin is one of the richest men in the world, with over $40 billion in privately owned properties and other assets. (Nobody knows how much he really has.) The wealth of Russia is being stolen out from under them and the people are powerless to see it or stop it from happening.
Is this how we will end up? The "oligarchs of America" are trying their best to make it happen!
Obama did the right thing when he initiated sanctions against Russia. Some of their money is frozen by us, and they are desperate to get it back. Meanwhile several other EU countries have made their own Magnitsky laws and its rapidly increasing elsewhere. It's a nightmare for Putin and the oligarchs.
We're not keeping their money but we've frozen it so they can't keep stealing from their own country. Obama's motive was to punish Putin for the crap he was doing to us 7 or 8 years ago. Of course now it's WAY worse! This is Putin's reason for getting Trump into the White House, it's very obvious.
