Re: Analysts - Putin to Launch Systematic Campaign Against Oligarchs

["Chris Doss" <nomorebounces@xxxxxxx>]

Melvin:

I would not like to be in Putin shoes, although the leather on these shoes can sustain an immediate long haul.  Putin is going to defeat the oligarchy and expropriate their wealth or a large part of it through taxation or direct state intervention. Putin does not desire to defeat a class or property relations but individuals.

What would you do that makes economic sense with oil over $40 a barrel?

Ten dollars a barrel could immediately be earmarked for pensions, housings, social programs and a bureaucracy on your side. Gas can be heavily taxed based on ownership of private automobiles. The profits from the petroleum industry can be taxed . . . according to what the government says is fair . . . which can change daily . . . or those opposed to this policy of fluidity can go to jail.
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Me:

Bingo.

The Putin position seems to be that, if you do what the state wants, you can have all the money you want. If you cross the state, you go down. Hard.

We will see what happens to the shares of Yukos that were frozen. I am 90% sure that they will either be renationalized or go to a proxy for the state.

Really, those KGB guys who were muzzled while the Yeltsin people were looting the country must be having the time of their lives. They have incriminating material on so many people... All it takes is a signal from above, and they run and do their thing like happy little attack dogs. It's almost a thing of beauty.

Allegedly, when Putin had his famous meeting with the oligarchs in 2000, he brought a case of kompromat (compromising materials) just to remind those present that he was KGB (now, FSB), that the KGB knows things, and that they had better know their place.