If you haven’t yet had a chance to read Greg White and Alexander Kolyandr’s sprawling and informative article on billionaire Oleg Deripaska in today’s Wall Street Journal, I really recommend taking the time to do so.  There’s quite a lot of great material in the article, leaving me indecisive about what parts to share.  Basically, I think that we can see the story of Deripaska surviving the economic crisis with his most of his fortune intact as an epic illustration of how business in done in Putin’s Russia, complete with flagrant conflicts of interest, oligopolistic non-competition, and the packaging of deals through foreign policy, diplomacy, and business.  Political loyalty and points with Putin is the only key to survival, while competing companies, political opponents, and foreigners of any stripe can expect lawlessness, theft, and maybe even prison.

Taxpaying Russian citizens should be outraged that government dedicates itself not to the public interest, but rather applies its resources to help a billionaire accumulate more wealth. Of course that’s not what happens – instead most of the public will just shrug their shoulders and ignore the state’s pillaging, and somehow continue to believe the Kremlin’s myth that Putin has “tamed” the oligarchs, instead of just incorporating them and becoming one himself.

If this kind of state corporatism is the future for Russia, the world should tremble.  FSB + Megacorporations = something more terrifying than the heights of Wall Street avarice.