Have you ever read that article? Seems like no.

https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2001/05/tayler-p4.htm


While the oligarchs were amassing their wealth, most press attention, both in Russia and abroad, was on the state privatization scheme conceived and implemented by Anatoly Chubais, the State Property Committee Chairman, and blessed by Western governments. In 1992 and 1993 the government doled out vouchers (vauchery) that Russians could use to invest in state enterprises that were to be put on public auction blocks. Although 41 million Russians acquired shares in 17,000 enterprises, the scheme amounted to a sham—little more than a way for the government to divest itself of moribund enterprises that the Soviet Union had gone bankrupt supporting. The state's most profitable assets—the oil and precious-metals industries—did not come under the purview of the initial scheme. Russians quickly understood that they had been deceived, and vauchery came to mean worthless chits of paper; privatizatsiya was popularly punned into prikhvatizatsiya (from the verb prikhvatit'—"to seize or grab").

This post was edited by said_aouita on Nov 14 2025 03:44am

You would be surprised to find out that I’ve read the article in its entirety and I’m acutely aware of the above. Despite all the atrocities committed against Russia in the 1990s - they managed to persevere. What’s your point?