Russian Oligarchs (Not Required)

I mentioned this in class, so here's a follow-up. Quoting the Financial Times article entitled "Inside Putin's Circle — the Real Russian Elite" (link, probably gated, but they do allow you to register for free):

The western media employ the term “oligarch” to describe super-wealthy Russians in general, including those now wholly or largely resident in the west. The term gained traction in the 1990s, and has long been seriously misused. In the time of President Boris Yeltsin, a small group of wealthy businessmen did indeed dominate the state, which they plundered in collaboration with senior officials. This group was, however, broken by Putin during his first years in power. 

Three of the top seven “oligarchs” tried to defy Putin politically. Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky were driven abroad, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed and then exiled. The others, and their numerous lesser equivalents, were allowed to keep their businesses within Russia in return for unconditional public subservience to Putin. ...

So, basically, talk of oligarchs is old school. Who's in charge now?

Under his leadership, they have plundered their country (though unlike the previous oligarchs, they have kept most of their wealth within Russia) and have participated or acquiesced in his crimes ...

...

These men are known in Russia as the “siloviki” — “men of force” ...

The article lists 5 of them. 

Some of the most effective pressure on Putin’s elite may come from their own children. The parents almost all grew up and began their careers in the final years of the Soviet Union. Their children, however, have in many cases been educated and lived largely in the west. 

...

... The siloviki have been accurately portrayed as deeply corrupt — but their corruption has special features. Patriotism is their ideology and the self-justification for their immense wealth. I once chatted over a cup of tea with a senior former Soviet official who had kept in touch with his old friends in Putin’s elite. “You know,” he mused, “in Soviet days most of us were really quite happy with a dacha, a colour TV and access to special shops with some western goods, and holidays in Sochi. We were perfectly comfortable, and we only compared ourselves with the rest of the population, not with the western elites. 

“Now today, of course, the siloviki like their western luxuries, but I don’t know if all this colossal wealth is making them happier or if money itself is the most important thing for them. I think one reason they steal on such a scale is that they see themselves as representatives of the state and they feel that to be any poorer than a bunch of businessmen would be a humiliation,...

The macroeconomic import of this is that sanctions targeted at oligarchs may miss the mark because this newer group isn't holding their wealth in the west, and is may be more concerned with power rather than money. 

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Not to put too fine a point on it, but Putin and all five soliviki are over 60 and half are over 70. So this is another case of a system that has come to be dominated by old guys who like to tell other people what to do.