https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_mafia#1992%E2%80%932000:_Growth_and_internationalization
Not that far off from that libertarian cop copypasta
Western liberals considers this period to be a golden age for freedom and democracy in Russia and have masturbatory fantasies of bringing Russia back to this.
The Russians only do not appreciate Gorbachev and Yeltzin due to
the hypertrophied democracy lobe of the slavic brain pannot having undergone the rational enlightenment period that started with Immanuel Kant in Königsberg and transformed all Western nation-states into shining beacons of civil rights that never committed any notable crimes against humanity afterwards :very-intelligent:
This processed differed historically from western patterns of privatization, because
:very-smart: flips page
...
:very-smart: flips pages
because in the west, we enslaved the-
:very-smart: flips pages
no not that part
:very-smart:
Whenever I bring this up to Americans they just say "no no 90s Russia wasn't real capitalism, it was crony gangster capitalism"...
Capitalism is what happens to white PMC's in air-conditioned offices in the imperial core. Everything else is not real capitalism.
I've heard more than a few folks say that any country in the global south that isn't prosperous, it's not because of capitalism it's because of "corruption", "lack of respect for property rights and the rule of law", or the huge dogwhistle "fundamental values".
Yeah that's all of former Eastern Bloc countries for ya.
Where i grew up an "entrepreneur" guy a few villages from where we lived was shot and encased in concrete in a workshop/garage, and he was already an organized crime wonk.
There's a chapter in Blackshirts and Reds about this, really tragic
Reading that book really makes your blood boil. Not only did gangsters, foreign and domestic, steal everything that wasn't bolted down, the former USSR became a hotbed of sex tourism, child pornography, trafficking and every other disgusting abuse of human misery you can think of. The people responsible for the illegal dissolution of the USSR and the subsequent capitalist restoration belong among the greatest villains of the 20th century and I sincerely hope that there is a hell for them to burn in for all eternity.
Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese doomsday cult and terrorist group, literally managed to buy a Russian military helicopter and also tried buying nukes/nuke materials during this time period.
The same cult that did the sarin gas attack owned a fucking military helicopter and was trying to get nukes? Holy shit.
Yup, they also attempted to create an underground production line for AK-74 rifles as well as producing other chemical and biological weapon agents.
It's honestly amazing how it's been 31 years since the overthrow of the Soviet Union and the rapid destabilization and restabilization occurred in a period of time where most of the users on this site weren't even born.
