Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Russian oligarchs" in English language version.
The Russian state has metamorphosed into a full-fledged 'kleptocracy' – dedicated to enriching those in power and their associates, usually organized criminal groups.
... what drove the process was not the determination to create a system based on universal values but rather the will to introduce a system of private ownership, which, in the absence of law, opened the way for the criminal pursuit of money and power.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Putin, able to see matters rather straighter than Yeltsin, realised two crucial things about the oligarchs: that they were potentially more powerful than him, and that they were about as popular with your average Russian as a man idly burning bundles of £50s outside an orphanage (according to one 2004 poll, only 18% of Russians opposed wholesale renationalisation of the country's resources).