this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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Not a gamer, but I will watch the occasional GN video just for the appreciation of their brand of investigative journalism.
The opening seconds of this video show this is at least in part, a Serbian company. That makes me assume there is probably additional financial grift and embezzlement tied directly to local organized crime groups.
It's been at least a decade since I've done any academic level review on the political economies in the post-Soviet bloc, but organized crime is pretty systemically entrenched in those countries. Unless something dramatic has changed the last 5-10 years.
My favorite was the Bulgarian Thick Necks, purely because of the name. They were organized crime groups that formed from former USSR top level athletic programs i.e. wrestlers. As far as I know, that wasn't their official name, just a colloquial term for that type of post-Soviet mafioso.
There is some good reading to be had that explains the specific roles that different groups of former Soviet elites were allowed to fill within the corrupt power vacuum that followed the collapse. A lot of the Putin era assassinations were people who tried to branch out e.g. oligarch businessman who tried to gain political power, or vice versa.
Can you recommend any good books? I haven't studied Russia much but recently read Killer In The Kremlin and would like to read more.
Sorry, like I said it's been a long time since I spent any real amount of time researching/reading about post-Soviet political economies of eastern bloc countries.
I can tell you that most of what I was reading was in peer-reviewed journals, which I'm sure are still available with the right keyword searches on LexusNexis....or Library Genesis.
If you aren't already, I would recommend checking out Vlad Vexler. Who is a Soviet-born, political philosopher/academic, outspoken Putin critic, and one of the better English language sources for intimate and nuanced explanations and analysis of the Russian political system, including the competing power structures and political dynamics of Putin's court.
He also provides some of the most thoughtful and considered arguments and analysis in support of Ukraine.
Edit (hope this helps):
Here's a keyword to jump start your search:
That's the term for an elite within the intelligence community (FSB), or close ties to it (ex-KGB).
I asked Llama for examples of Siloviki who tried to amass power and influence outside their domain, and it provided me with this response:
To be fair, I haven't double checked the veracity for the people cited above, but only because even if their hallucinations, it aligns with how I understand their system of checks and balances to operate.
The system is setup this way, to give Putin the ability to play mediator when disputes arise and be the bridge between rival factions. So, he remains up top, and no one is capable of amassing enough power or influence to seriously challenge him.
It also means that Putin is not the arch-puppet master pulling all the strings as he's often portrayed in Western media. He sits a top the food chain, but his power over the elite comes from how he can exert, or finesse influence e.g. mediate disputes, not because he can slam a gavel and make everyone ignore their own self interests.