by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org
Yesterday I reported that Anatoly Chubais, who created the Russian oligarch system during the Yeltsin years, the system in which wealth and capital flowed out of Russia, has fled Russia. He was a member of the Gang of Three with Latvian Alexei Kudrin and central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina. They convinced Putin of an economic policy that has severely damaged Russia economically and left her unprepared for Washington’s sanctions.
The Chubais-Kudrin-Nabiullina policy had Russia borrowing from the West for no reason other than to have Russia vulnerable to sanctions. The policy had Russia supporting the currencies of the US and EU to the detriment of the ruble, thus making the Russian currency another vulnerable point of Western attack, and gave away Russian income to foreigners by privatizing Russian assets. The policy held back Russian economic development. For reasons I don’t know, Putin trusted these leaders of the pro-Western Atlanticist Integrationists who built dams against Russian economic development.