Oligarchs shape politics, not only in Russia but also in the U.S. and Israel

Uri Avneri | 08.01.2026

This is about Russia. But it could have been about Israel. Or about the United States. It is entitled The Oligarchs and is now being screened on Israeli television.

Some of its episodes are simply unbelievable or would have been, if they had not come straight from the horses mouths: the heroes of the story, who gleefully boast about their despicable exploits. The series was produced by Israeli immigrants from Russia.

The oligarchs are a tiny group of entrepreneurs who exploited the disintegration of the Soviet system to loot the treasures of the state and to amass plunder amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. In order to safeguard the perpetuation of their business, they took control of the state. Six out of the seven are Jews.

In popular parlance they are called oligarchs from the Greek word meaning rule of the few.

In the first years of post-Soviet Russian capitalism they were the bold and nimble ones who knew how to exploit the economic anarchy in order to acquire enormous possessions for a hundredth or a thousandth of their value: oil, natural gas, nickel and other minerals. They used every possible trick, including cheating, bribery and murder. Every one of them had a small private army. In the course of the series they are proud to tell in great detail how they did it................

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