AS TRUMP 2.0 BEGINS, U.S. OLIGARCHS PREPARE TO TAKE CONTROL

The power of oligarchs in autocracies around the world, such as Putin's Russia, has become normalised. But to see it happening in America is a matter of huge concern to many.

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I't was Karl Marx, the father of communism, I who once said "History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce." Looking at the oligarchs surrounding Donald Trump during his inauguration ceremony last Monday, there was certainly a sense of déjà vu, an echo of the past when Russia's oligarchs rescued Boris Yeltsin.

When the Soviet Union collapsed thirty four years ago, a small number of business-savvy Russians became immensely wealthy by buying up State assets on the cheap. Paupers became billionaires almost overnight. The ancient Greek word "oligarch" re-surfaced and became common as flash Ferraris zoomed past sclerotic Soviet-era Ladas as they crawled around the muddy streets of Moscow.

Panic spread among the chosen few, however, as the 1996 elections approached and the unpopular president, Boris Yeltsin, appeared likely to lose against the communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov. Two of Russia's billionaires, Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, got together as a matter of urgency at the Swiss ski resort of Davos in January 1996 to plan the alcoholic Yeltin's victory in the election, the only outcome that would protect their wealth. Together with the media baron Vladimir Gusinsky, they ensured that all newspapers and television stations promoted only Boris Yeltsin, completely ignoring Zyuganov. Yeltsin duly won and the relieved oligarchs gorged themselves on even more state assets as their reward.