Oligarchs

In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, entire Russia was put in the hands of Wall Street and the IMF. After all, communism had failed and it was time to embrace capitalism! These experts were supposed to create miracles using principles of free market and privatization that would make everyone prosperous.

Economic Terrorism

In reality, Privatization became Piratization.

It was just the like the shock doctrine that Milton Friedman and his Chicago Boys inflicted on Chile in the 1970s. A slightly different version of the same playbook has been used on Greece since 2009.

In 1992, the first year of “reform” introduced by globalists, Russia’s inflation skyrocketed to 2500%. This had a double-whammy effect. One, the price of food and other things went up 25 times! Second, savings of pensioners were wiped out. If someone had 100,000 Rubles saved up, it turned into about 4,000 Rubles.

The people in charge of this economic terrorism was the Harvard Mafia – Larry Summers (the future Treasury Secretary of the US), Jeffrey Sachs, David Lipton etc. – that destroyed the economy through crony capitalism, hyperinflation, debt trap and austerity. Crony capitalism’s strategy was to divvy up Russia’s vast natural resources and state corporations among a handful of oligarchs who, in turn, sold a chunk of the ownership to western elites for pennies on the dollar (think of it as a commission).

USA Controlled Russian Politics

The US controlled Russia’s politics as well. Russia’s leadership, including the two-term President, Boris Yeltsin, was handpicked by America’s elites. Below are:

1. Headlines from U.S. media that boast how the U.S. rigged the elections and helped Yeltsin win the Presidency. The cover of the Time magazine from 1996 proudly bragged, “Yanks to the Rescue“! Inside, an article titled “Rescuing Boris [Yeltsin]” went into the details of how American advisers, campaign managers and pollsters helped Yeltsin win the Russian presidential election. Of course, the reason the US wanted Yeltsin was he was an idiot and an alcoholic, and most of his cabinet was filled with US puppets.

2. Bill Clinton’s conversation with Tony Blair that show how the U.S. controlled the Russian parliament and could choose the Prime Minister. Clinton said, “The first thing we have to do is get Chernomyrdin confirmed [as Russia’s Prime Minister]. I will see what I can do over there and work like hell to influence the Russian parliament!”

Yeltsin — America’s Useful Idiot

Oh, in his first term, after the disastrous economic “reforms,” Yeltsin was impeached by the Russian parliament and removed from the office. As a response, he brought in the military and attacked the parliament building with tanks! What was the response from the western media? Nothing but praise! That’s how the US spreads democracy.

Then, in 1996, when Yeltsin was running for reelection, Bill Clinton arranged for a quick $10 billion loan from the IMF and then also visited Moscow just before the election to give Yeltsin a big boost.

Russia’s Great Depression

Throughout Yeltsin years, the experts from the US kept destroying Russia’s economy. To give a sense of the insanity, the “liberalization” programs administered by the US experts caused hyperinflation for 4 long years, sometimes of up to 50% per month (or more than 2000% per year).

Under the guidance of U.S., thousands of Russian factories were simply shut down. Even Russia’s oil/gas production fell by half, compared to the USSR period. Russia’s PPP GDP fell by 40% during Yeltsin years and the economic crisis was worse than America’s Great Depression of the 1930s.

To solve this fake economic crisis, America’s vulture capitalists prescribed more illogical and cruel advice: slash government spending, layoff more workers and raise taxes. This neoliberal “solution” predictably lead to only more misery for most Russians.

In the 1990s, often, 40% of Russian workers didn’t get paid for months or not at all, and close to 1/3rd of Russians were making under $4 a day. There were 2 million Russian children who essentially became orphans; suicide rates among men skyrocketed and life expectancy of men fell to 58. Between 1991 and 1999, Russia’s population decreased by 8 million.

Abandoned Russian Children

What no communist could achieve … the brightest minds of Wall Street had accomplished. In 1998, Russia defaulted on its debt, bank interest rates hit 120%, and the stock market collapsed. (The default itself was bogus because the amount was only about $40 billion, which is nothing compared to the trillions of dollars of natural resources that Russia has). Then to “protect” the value of Ruble, Wall Street advisers forced Russia to sell off all its foreign exchange and gold reserves. When all the reserves were gone … the Ruble still fell 80%.

Destroying Russia’s Military Without Waging a War

It was not just the economy that the globalists wanted to destroy — the Russian military was systematically dismantled. Russian fighter jets and tanks couldn’t operate because of lack of fuel; radars couldn’t operate because there was no electricity; and Russian soldiers were driving taxis or begging on the streets of Moscow.

Then as a blow to the national pride, Russia lost the war against Islamic terrorists in Chechnya. What’s not widely understood is the fact the these terrorist groups were replicas of the Mujahideen from Afghanistan. And, yes, these people were still using Saudi Arabia’s funds and CIA’s weapons and training. Thus, while the US economists were destroying the Russian economy, the US foreign policy establishment was working on breaking up Russia geographically.

Then there was the betrayal regarding NATO. In 1990, the US made “iron-clad guarantee” that NATO would not expand “an inch forward” if the USSR was dissolved. By 1996, the US started proposing NATO expansion. In 1999, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary were absorbed into NATO. Few months later, NATO bombed Serbia/Yugoslavia 1999 — Serbia was Russia’s staunch ally.

Basically, the international bankers set up on Russia like vultures attacking a wounded bear. Their goal was to destroy Russia’s economy, society, military and the geographical statehood itself. If these money-masters hadn’t been stopped, Russia would have disintegrated into numerous dysfunctional and powerless regions by now.

Enter Putin

The bleak 1998 was also the year when Vladimir Putin became the head of FSB – Russia’s intelligence agency. Next year, he was handpicked by Boris Yeltsin to become the Prime Minister of Russia. Few months later, on Dec 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned abruptly and made Putin the acting President.

Putin had seen what happened when you trusted the reputable economists, banksters and vulture capitalists from the West. He fought the (traitorous) Russian oligarchs and sent them to prisons, one by one. The lucky ones fled the country: Boris Berzovsky to England; Vladimir Gusinsky to Greece; Yegor Gaidar to Ireland; Mikhail Khodorkovsky to Switzerland and so on.

Then slowly but steadily Putin changed everything around

So, that’s why Russia distrusts the West, why Putin is popular in Russia