The irony of the US sanctioning Russian oligarchs is that the US government, and prominent US economists, were instrumental in the "shock therapy" privatization that created these oligarchs in the first place.
"The privatization drive... helped to create a system of tycoon capitalism run for the benefit of a corrupt political oligarchy that has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars of Western aid and plundered Russia’s wealth." thenation.com/article/world/…
Shock therapy also crashed the economy, immiserated the population, and caused life expectancy to collapse, creating the toxic conditions that set the stage for the rise of right-wing nationalist ideology.
The society was shredded. "Implementation of neoliberal-inspired rapid, large-scale privatization programs was associated with significant declines in life expectancy, as well as with greater alcohol-related deaths, heart disease, and suicide rates." pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19771951/
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