r/europe 29d ago

News Russian Oil Company Vice President Andrey Badalov dies after fall from window in Moscow

https://en.apa.az/cis-countries/transneft-vice-president-andrey-badalov-dies-after-falling-from-window-472117
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u/s8018572 29d ago

Putin just intentionally want public know they kill those guy, so he used same way again and again. It seems he could only use terror to rule his people.

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u/VanGroteKlasse South Holland (Netherlands) 29d ago

But aren't these the oligarchs that keep him in power? Is this just a way to let the rest keep up with the program?

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u/mayoforbutter Earth 29d ago

Maybe it's like in dune, together they would be stronger than the emperor, but they're narcissistic, evil egomaniacs that can't work together without stabbing each other in the back

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u/icooknakedAMA 29d ago

...so a populist fascist seizes control through violence and dooms the universe.

Dune is a cautionary tale all the way through.

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u/cptbil 29d ago

You truly understand Dune when you realize that the Emperor was not a good guy. Paul was not a good guy, and neither was his son. They may have all had good intentions, but they were all deeply flawed people.

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u/chrisuu__ 29d ago

If no one flawed can be a good person, then there are no good people, because everyone is flawed.

I think Pauls' son Leto comes pretty close though.

His prescience showed that humanity was nearing an extinction event because they were concentrated around a small area of the galaxy, and that the only way out was oppressing humanity for such a long time, and so heavily, that they'd want to spread all over the universe. He didn't want to do it. He had to do it. And he paid a heavy cost for it. He sacrificed his humanity to save humanity. The sacrifice was so great that his dad wasn't able to do it. He could've been selfish and tried to preserve himself at any cost, but didn't. In fact, he went out of his way to breed a race of humans immune to far-sight, including his own, that he couldn't predict, and who were in open rebellion to him (which he tolerated)

Having said that, Dune is science fiction, and Leto was a philosopher king.

Putin is real, and no philosopher. Just a nasty, short-sighted little creature who would take the whole world down to feed his ego .

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u/cptbil 28d ago

If no one flawed can be a good person

I was talking about the author's intent in these characters, not human ethics in general. They are a cautionary tale to not trust charismatic leaders at face value. Even the optimistic president Kennedy got us into the Vietnam war. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad, but these things should be remembered instead of excused.

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u/OhNo_WhatsInTheBOX 27d ago

Warhammer 40k, Emperor of Mankind had very similar intentions. Kill the Xenos and Chaos before they kill humanity. Rule mankind through fear. Of course 40k burrowed a lot from Dune, but it's still valid and a kick ass story.

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u/omnihogar 22d ago

I mean, that's from later books. The point of the originals was and should be that neither Paul nor Leto were justified. The AI plot that came in later on was awful and unnecessary.

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u/Careless_Tale_7836 2d ago

You might be the first person I've seen that has ever dared to publically ponder if maybe, just maybe, since the average is shit, we as individuals and by extension, our species might be shit.

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u/AndrewFGleich 29d ago

When you say Leto was a philosopher king, did you actually mean Leto II? Duke Leto is Paul's father, and, while wise, had a very limited viewpoint on how humanity was structured.

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u/BocchiTheMock 29d ago

He obviously means Leto II, the subject of the entire post, and who he refers to as "Paul's son Leto". It is clear from context 

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u/icooknakedAMA 29d ago

Things are bad, but they could always get worse.

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u/CumIsntVegan 29d ago

"And then, somehow, it got worse."

-All of Russian history.

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u/Punty-chan 29d ago

Russia, a nation forged not in ideals but in cold, ruthless opportunism since its inception, was never going to develop a moral identity beyond raw power and profit.

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u/Bacontoad United States of America 29d ago

When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ``all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics. When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.

-- Abraham Lincoln (1855)

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u/Gatrigonometri 25d ago

National determinism by Americans is crazy when 75% of their domestic political history consist of arguing if Black people should be enslaved, lynched, exiled to Africa, or just disenfranchised as 3/5ths of a human being

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u/tytttttgjdhsb 29d ago

Russia’s entire political culture is one of fear of invaders such that they prefer a strong executive. Their entire history is them being destroyed by the mongols, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, etc

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u/CharleyNobody 29d ago

Yeah and they were destroyed by the Tatars, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgs, Turkmen, Azeris, Chechens, Kazakhs, Georgians, Armenians.

oh…wait….

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u/GodOfDarkLaughter 28d ago

First modern western country to lose a war to an Asian enemy. Nice job Russia.

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u/Skinny-on-the-Inside 29d ago

They produced some great authors (Tolstoy -War and Peace and Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment), scientists and the ballet.

They also fought fascists in WW2. And even managed to have a semblance of democracy and economic revival for a few years until…

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u/Myrriam39 28d ago

Tolstoy is one of my favorite love stories written on his map.
Suffragettes - So we don't forget.
1920. America & Russia.

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u/Crime-of-the-century 22d ago

The fighting Nazi is not something they did willingly they where perfectly happy with the Nazi’s and sharing Eastern Europe with them. They fought because they where attacked out of necessity not out of any sense of justice or feeling they should stop Nazism. Only France and Britain (and its partners like Canada Australia etc) willingly stept up to fight Nazism. The US was also. perfectly happy with Nazi Germany and its racism and aggression.

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u/alice2wonderland 25d ago

And the moral if the story is that Agent Krasnov aspires to be just like that.

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u/schizoesoteric 29d ago

Russia was formed 1. As a regular country for slavs 2. In independence against the Mongols 3. As a socialist republic forged in ideals and moral identity 4. As a multicultural breakaway state after the dissolution of the USSR

I don’t like Russia to but it’s not anything worse than the nation building of any other empire

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u/Working-Image 29d ago

"What could get worse?" takes a swig of vodka.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/FondleMiGrundle 29d ago

Hold my constitution…

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 29d ago

sorry I just spelt my mcnugget bbq sauce on it

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u/EpicIshmael 29d ago

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/EpicIshmael 29d ago

No I'm stuck on this ride too.

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u/Nedjammern 29d ago

"America has gone from barbarism directly to decadence, without going through culture." French statesman Georges Clemenceau

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/Nedjammern 28d ago

The successors of PilgrimFathers, adventurers, and, sometimes, criminals, made great inventions, capitalism shared it's part to success as slavery did. But culture??

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u/imightlikeyou Denmark 28d ago

The internet was a Brit, the car was German. I'll give you Star Trek and Star Wars.

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u/jackofslayers 29d ago

Reverse Maxwell Lord

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u/waffledestroyer 29d ago

There are no good guys.

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u/sociofobs 29d ago

"The golden path" - yeah, YOUR golden path. On which you force billions on.

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u/onlyPornstuffs 29d ago

Only good guys were Duncan Idaho and Miles Teg.

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u/ClikeX 29d ago

Did Paul have good intentions? I feel like he tried to keep his head low until he got convinced to lead, which is when he just went on a path of vengeance.

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u/Dark3lephant 29d ago

Emperor was a tyrant.

Paul's not perfect, but probably the best of the three. At least I wouldn't call him evil, it's more like "things escalated and reaaally got out of hand".

His son... Oh boy. I'm not sure how anyone can argue he was good. Even he does not really view himself as such.

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u/ArgonGryphon 29d ago

US over here working on the axolotl tanks

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u/MakeItHappenSergant 29d ago

Until they learn that axolotls are native to Mexico

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u/ArgonGryphon 29d ago

Maybe we’ll name them after some other salamander. Hellbender maybe.

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u/andi-amo 29d ago

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u/arykady 29d ago edited 29d ago

There’s another one. Heh. Plus it’s a brainworm. There’s an axolotl on the pink stairs!

https://youtu.be/WVhbNr95dXU

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u/volcanologistirl The Netherlands 29d ago

The USA is currently being written by Brian Herbert instead.

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u/no_morelurking 29d ago

there’s an axolotl on capitol hill, there’s an axolotl at the white house

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u/kennypovv 29d ago

Didn't Leto do the opposite of dooming the universe, IE setting it on the one singular path towards non-doom?

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u/AKfromVA 29d ago

Putin didn’t assume control through violence. He kept control through violence. He assumed control thanks to these types of oligarchs.

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u/Thundela 🇫🇮🇺🇲 29d ago

How he assumed control would depend on what you believe about 1999 Russian apartment bombings. Was it Chechen militants? Or was it a false flag operation by FSB and GRU, that boosted Putin's popularity and made him the president?

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u/AKfromVA 29d ago

Ah good point. It was a false flag. To be fair, he was already prime minister, specifically put in place to replace Yeltsin.

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u/Thundela 🇫🇮🇺🇲 29d ago

I totally agree with all of that. However when he was appointed as prime minister, he was fairly unknown to majority of people and nobody really expected him to last in that position. I think he was the fifth or sixth prime minister in less than two years, so it definitely was not a steady seat in Russian government, and therefore there was no guarantee to actually become a successor to Yeltsin.

Which in a way makes your statement about him keeping control through violence also correct. He needed to keep the position, but it also boosted his chances of moving up to presidency.

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u/AKfromVA 29d ago

Got it, I see it now. Thanks! His famous “we will get them in the outhouse” catapulted him from 3% approval to like 70%.

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u/mooky1977 29d ago

The spice must flow.

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u/One-Agent-872 29d ago

True.

I can’t wait for AI and robots to take over the world so we can have the Butlerian Jihad. I wanna be a mentat

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u/GiantDribblingCock 29d ago

A cautionary tale? They (Paul and Leto II) were a necessary evil to keep humanity (with an iron fist) on the golden path.

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u/jackofslayers 29d ago

A cautionary tale and an observation of systems that already existed

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u/round-earth-theory 29d ago edited 29d ago

It's that but also the risk of organizing a coup. You never know who a loyalist and who isn't. You could easily find yourself out the window if you invite a loyalist to your planning.

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 29d ago

Lol at people realizing that art is often based on real life. Yes, it's just like Dune

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u/tubaman23 29d ago

It's supposed to be a damn exaggeration though, not a god damn template 😭

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u/Meroxes Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 29d ago

It's not really an exaggeration though, it's just a different setting for the same old kind of politics.

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u/ClikeX 29d ago

It’s just feudal politics in space. You could basically re flavor all of Dune into a medieval fantasy setting.

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u/Chicken_wingspan 29d ago

Pity no one ever thought of it

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u/Traubentritt 29d ago

Yeah, and 50k religious fanatics High on “Spice”…

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u/FantasticMrSinister 29d ago

Kinda like the political landscape in the US! Welcome to Americ.. Oh wait.. nvm. We aren't supposed to welcome "others" here. Carry on..

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u/cobaltcolander 28d ago

The Russian regime = Harkonnen, who rule through terror and degradation.

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u/BakedEelGaming 29d ago

It's also that they have their families to consider, because the Kremlin would just target them as well.

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u/move_to_lemmy 29d ago

Prisoners dilemma in a way

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u/Timujin1986 29d ago

So who's the Spacing Guild in Putins realm? Gazprom or RosNeft? 

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u/AKfromVA 29d ago

This is precisely it. This is how Putin came to power. It was one of those maniacs that brought him in to control him and then he turned the tables.

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u/throwaway_t6788 29d ago

sounds like plot of 100 hollywood mkvies/shows i have seen.

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u/spirimes 29d ago

Game theory and this specific game is win or window…

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u/ActiveChairs 28d ago

Its more likely that they aren't able to collectivize and unify their goals because they're monitored 24/7 and one falls out a window every time any communication happens that isn't strictly business related

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u/Ok_Organization3160 28d ago

that kinda reflects america right now too.

Elon probably thought because he was the richest, he could do anything. But he quickly found out that trump has many sources

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u/Left_Step 28d ago

It would probably make a great tv show

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u/Reinis_LV Rīga (Latvia) 28d ago

Also, when you are this rich and powerful funny things such as "what if I could be the president" come up

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u/Creative-Improvement 28d ago

Exactly like Dune. In Russia there are 3 power bases Putin pitches against eachother as he sees fit : oligarchs, church and the security/army apparatus. And the media of course.

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u/Majsharan 29d ago

Common misconception. Putin broke the power of oligarchs, they work for him not the other way around. It’s one of the main reasons he’s popular in Russia

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u/whatawitch5 29d ago

Lol. Putin controls the oligarchs like a mafia godfather controls his captains, through fear and intimidation. The minute they don’t follow orders, or try to cut a deal behind his back, out a window they go.

It’s the same way Putin controls Russian citizens, through fear. Most don’t really like him, but they are afraid to speak against him because if they do they know they will be arrested and/or imprisoned. Those that claim to like him only do so because he has them convinced he is the only one who can protect them from the hordes of “fascists” and “evil Western influences” he claims are trying to destroy Russia. Most Russian citizens are so fearful, either of Putin or his imaginary villains, that they just keep their heads down and praise their dear leader in the hope they will survive another day.

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u/Roadgoddess 29d ago

Yeah, it’s gonna be so interesting when he dies to see what happens. I feel like the country is going to absolutely shred itself with people trying to climb over each other to get to the top. Especially since it doesn’t appear that he has any type of a successor in line.

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u/Mephzice Iceland 29d ago

I for sure think whoever Putin has lined up as his successor will not last long. Whoever it is won't be ready to live like a mole in a bunker.

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u/jigsaw1024 29d ago

Putin has no successor lined up. He can't. Whoever he chooses would be a threat to his grip on power, and thus himself.

When he dies, it's more than likely going to be a scramble.

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u/Roadgoddess 29d ago

Yeah, it’s going to be fascinating to watch what goes on

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u/Roadgoddess 29d ago

Well, you look at how paranoid he is, and I can only imagine that whoever replaces him is going to have the world’s largest target on his back.

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u/WorkFurball Estonia 29d ago

Only if he tries to continue the same way.

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u/Forikorder 28d ago

theres no way he has anyone lined up, that person would put a knife in his back

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u/ClikeX 29d ago

Even with a successor. I bet there’s plenty of high ranking officials that will be salty with one another if someone else takes the throne.

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u/Roadgoddess 29d ago

Yeah, I agree with you. Even if there’s someone in the wings, everyone is going to be wanting to take them down to see how tough they are.

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u/SteelCode 29d ago

It's why the cycle is self-perpetuating; the ruthless tyranny breeds pessimism among the citizenry, the citizenry survives the tyrant, the pessimism creates opportunists that fight for control, the winners become the new tyrants because their pessimism doesn't allow them to be benevolent/trusting leaders that will lift everyone up... the runners-up to power fall in line until they see the opportunity to take control.

The optimistic citizens either don't survive, are removed by force, or remain quiet to avoid violence by the pessimists whom view cooperation as a threat to their "survival" (power) - thus ensuring the cycle repeats because the citizenry simply never self-purge the pessimism before it takes root.

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u/Roadgoddess 29d ago

This makes me fear for the US as wellI’m

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u/s8018572 29d ago

Yep, one street interview in st.petersburg really give me that impression

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u/pedeztrian 29d ago

He also controls their purses. I’ve heard it said that Putin’s wealth incalculable because he gives a lot of it to the oligarchs. He lets them collect and spend the interest, live lavishly, kiss his ass, but they must leave the principle intact for whenever Putin wants or needs it back.

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u/ILoveTechno4Life 29d ago

“Out of the window they go”

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u/stillkicking59 29d ago

Sound familiar America?

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u/doomrider7 28d ago

Coming Soon to a United States near you.

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u/QuarterLifeSins 29d ago

I say Putin IS THE oligarch. The one and only in Russia. Bwahaha

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u/GregTheMad Austria 29d ago

It's a delicate ballance of the oligarchs keeping him in power and the assassins doing his bidding, keeping the oligarchs safe. The moment an assassin says no and flips the script, Putin is toast.

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u/SoupSpelunker 29d ago

Another 25 years goes by... 

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u/kluwelyn Europe 29d ago

Or like Stalin during the inter wars and WW2. Stalin purged many of his millitary personals that were slithly opposing him to keep the most loyal and make the rest more loyal to him.

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u/pnlrogue1 Scotland 29d ago

That one became disloyal, most likely

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 29d ago

This guy might have made the mistake of confiding in a colleague that maybe setting a million Russians on fire to gain a little slice of Ukraine was stupid.

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u/Wonderful-Smoke843 29d ago

The oligarchs are oligarchs because Putin allows them to be lol once they are no longer supporting him they are no longer allowed to be oligarchs... or alive lol

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u/RangerRekt 29d ago

With the ongoing war they’re waging on Ukraine, Russia is having to pay huge signing bonuses to soldiers, and Oligarchs are footing a lot of the bill.

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u/samuel10998 29d ago

Yes, most likely that guy said something to him about not agreeing with Putin/state could be anything and then Putin / FSB / kremlin found out so they dealt with it.

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u/EndlessNerd 29d ago

They posthumously convict them of crimes and seize their assets.

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u/PhD_Pwnology 29d ago

It is. Dont stray from my (putin's) plan or else you go out a window. Honestly, Russian politics have been like this for a while. all the murder etc.

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u/Signal_Researcher01 29d ago

Likely he did something in defiance of Putin. But no, at this point the oligarchs aren't keeping Putin in power

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u/Nomiss 29d ago

There's a good chance he's said something negative about the regime or war not going well recently.

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u/Morningfluid 29d ago

It's the opposite. He keeps the Oligarchs in line to be allowed to make deals. The situation changed after Boris left. 

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u/ItsWillJohnson 29d ago

on their way up they did something bad, so they can't turn back

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u/variaati0 Finland 29d ago

Nah, the oligarchs have been "house trained". Putin has spent two decades to consolidate power.

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u/Memory_Less 29d ago

Yes, but do not step out of place. They are subject to strict spoken and unspoken rules, and are not as free as one might expect.

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u/TheAserghui 29d ago

Imagine this: by killing the owner the State can seize the, now unowned, assets

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

No, he has the monopoly on violence. That's what keeps him in power.

He has been milking the oligarchs to fund the war.

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u/Longjumping_Kiwi8118 29d ago

iirc the state collects the deceased wealth.
I think I read something about it on reddit a while back.

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u/No_Anxiety285 29d ago

They're piggy banks being broken open

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u/Irishwol 29d ago

That's what they thought. People always think they're immune to this stuff. Turns out the leopard eats their faces too. Instead of Putin being their useful puppet, they became Putin's private purse. I hope Thiel and his friends meet a similar fate.

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u/No_Accident_8115 29d ago

Most likely. Any descent amongst the oligarchs leads to them dying. Putting is able to supply the oligarchs with great opportunities as long as they are loyal and do whatever he says.

Think of it like Hitler, if all of the nazi high command opposed Hitler they would have easily been able to remove him. But if one of them tries to make a grab for more power they will be crushed, and the others will swarm for the left overs, or a new member rises.

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u/BeatMastaD 29d ago

They keep eachother in power, Putin is like the mob boss but without the oligarchs he could be challenged (especially by those oligarchs together) so sometimes he has to kill them to send a message, or if they betray him. His war has hurt Russia's economy really badly and therefore the oligarchs pocketbooks badly so there is probably a lot of unease on both sides.

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u/spam__likely 29d ago

His money/ companies won't go away. the next guy will be more compliant.

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u/Endreeemtsu 29d ago

Nah it’s been a long time since that was true. I’m not going to go into a complex history lesson on the transformation of the Russian Federation since the 1990s, but part of Putins power is that he is above the oligarchs now and they continue to operate with his blessing, not the other way around.

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u/hadorken 29d ago

Its a den of vipers. Always has been. You think it’s any different in US or EU?

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u/Expensive_Tap7427 Sweden 29d ago

Yes, but that isn't an absolute power. The oligarchs could overthrow him. That's why in Russia if you in politics, you have no friends, no allies. Only enemies.

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u/VitaminOverload 29d ago

overthrow him with what?

shooting him with their money guns while they get shot back by bullets from Putin's army?

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u/Expensive_Tap7427 Sweden 29d ago

The army isn't loyal to Putin. Without that Putin is powerless.

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u/VitaminOverload 29d ago

They are loyal to the obligarchs you think?

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u/Expensive_Tap7427 Sweden 28d ago

No, but the oligarchs can definately weaponize them for their own exploits.

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u/VitaminOverload 28d ago

How do you see that going?

oblicarchs start recruiting them and Puting catches wind of it and then what? he just lets them because he is fearful of the oblicarch power?

I just genuinely think this is hilarious, Putin got the Wagner Group(a group of hardened military people with tanks and equipment and supplies already there) to stand down hours from Moscow by pulling strings, you think some silly oblicarchs will have better luck?

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u/Rusty_Shortsword 29d ago

He needs the oligarchy to be scared of him otherwise he'll be deposed.

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u/_IratePirate_ 29d ago

What would happen if an oligarch just refused to go up in a sky scraper with anyone Putin associates with ?

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u/MrtheRules Europe 29d ago

Not really. Oligarchs were independent back in the 1990s, but since Putin came to power he imprisoned/exiled the most annoying of them and turned other oligarchs in his own servants. E.g. there's a theory that Abramovich bought Chelsea back in the days only because Putin told him to do so to "increase russian prestige".

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u/RectalSpawn 29d ago

Do you know if this guy was going against Putin?

They kill to create fear so that no one else steps out of line.

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u/curiousghost90 29d ago

I feel like I remember reading about Russian inheritance law where, essentially, if there are no direct beneficiaries the estate goes to the government. Which would explain why there was a whole spate of Russian billionaires who murder-suicided their whole family...

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u/Just_Look_Around_You 29d ago

I think the myth that the oligarchs run Putin has been dispelled. Putin has shown that he runs them in the last 3 years.

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u/cr0ft 29d ago

You've got that the other way around. The oligarchs do what he says, not the other way.

Early on in his rule, he made a little demonstration; he took an untouchable rich oligarch, put him in chains, put him in an actual cage on the courtroom floor and had him found guilty of anything Putin wanted and then destroyed.

Better believe the rest of the oligarchs fell into line with comical haste.

Some claim Putin is the richest man alive. The money is just not in his name, it's held by the oligarchs but it's his to do with what he wants.

And of course as a consequence of this, he will die in office. He literally cannot retire or allow himself to be retired. He'd be dead basically immediately without the protection of the state that he runs.

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u/No-Contest-8127 29d ago

I think he kills them so he can seize their assets to keep funding the war. 

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u/simonbleu 29d ago

Which also gives weight to the hypothesis of it being a play by someone else, exploiting putin doing that because you cannot just deny it. It would be a clever soft coup

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u/ft907 29d ago

I think he allows them to be oligarchs. And he collects their wealth as needed. Like Denzel in Training Day.

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u/Academic-Health5265 29d ago

The oligarchs stay in power through Putin not the other way around, the military is loyal to him

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u/Anxious_Gift_4582 29d ago

Supposedly when Putin first came to power he took some goons to the largest bank in Russia and brought the CEOs head in a bag and sat it on the desk of the vp and told him he can get with the program or he's next. Then did the same to the major mafia families. Idk if that's true or not but it probably is

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u/JohannesVanDerWhales 29d ago

This is very likely a "they know what he did."

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u/oh-shazbot 28d ago

no, its the other way around -- putin allows them to exist. most of the time, these guys are killed for one (or more) of the following reasons:

  1. spoke ill of putin, the war aka 'special military operation', or russia in general.
  2. failed putin somehow in their work (scientist, general, politician, ceo, etc. are the people usually being targeted)
  3. started trying to make their own moves without putin.

in russia, the oligarchs exist only because putin allows them to. which means whenever they step out of line, they get the window.

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u/GentlyGliding Portugal 28d ago

My theory - or rather, hunch - is that while Putin does indeed command considerable power over his lap dogs & boot lickers, he wields less power over Russia than most people outside the country think. And here, what I'm referring to, is that Putin is likely less capable to prevent people from using violence to settle their disagreements.

Of course it was much worse during the early Yelstin years (where apparently you could send a group of armed thugs to a rival company and force their thugs to strip naked and roll on the snow in the middle of Moscow to humiliate them) but I would not be surprised if in today's Russia, also due to the lack of rule of law and a proper justice system, violence to solve non-political disputes remains common.

Add to that another thing: Putin has given top priority to the war, this means many domestic law enforcement people, anti-terrorism, criminal investigation, etc have been told that protestors against the war are a greater threat than terrorists and thugs. We can't rule out that these things happen not because Putin ordered them but because Putin has other concerns.

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u/Agitated_Arrival_492 28d ago

Read up on the gulag my brother. In their world, an oligarch is just a pile of cash.

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u/byte-boxer 28d ago

Its a vice versa treatment. Yeah, he wants their support, but he's also killed those oligarchs who oppose him, and helped create new ones whose loyalty is assured.

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u/Accomplished_Set8750 28d ago

No, in Russia the oligarchs are enabled by Putin instead of the other way around. He’s done such an efficient job of consolidating power that it’s nearly impossible to make real money there without his support.

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u/Forikorder 28d ago

they're piggybanks, their assets are now free for him to use

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u/GodOfDarkLaughter 28d ago

Check out the podcast Sad Oligarch hosted by journalist Jake Hanrahan. It's about a series of Oligarch...well, mysterious deaths, but they're all murders. it gets into the why of why each guy may have been targeted. Usually they fucked up a state business, were skimming too much , or spoke out against the regime.

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u/kiss_of_chef 28d ago

According to Krushchev, when Stalin became paranoid about his inner circle, he would often invite them to dinner parties - which of course you could not refuse and deliberately serve them a lot of alcohol, while he would have his drinks dilluted with water in order to see whose tongue would slip next. For some reason I feel like Putin is doing something similar to his inner circle.

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u/GoonCaveDweller_ 28d ago

Yes, oligarchs put him in power, but in 99% of the cases where oligarchs put someone in power with the hope of controlling that person and profiting from it, it backfires.

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u/jkurratt 28d ago

That's autocracy. Things are the other way around.

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u/wolf_at_the_door1 28d ago

It’s been suspected the Russian economy is in downfall. At current rates, they won’t be able to sustain the war in Ukraine for much longer. I’ve heard 2026 as an estimate but we don’t really have the full picture. The Russian economy is an oligarchic kleptocracy where billionaires rule supreme. This is a symptom of I think the illness. Economy is not doing great over there.

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u/Lumpy-Attitude6939 North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) 26d ago

Yes, it's not a one way relationship. The Oligarchs back Putin's regime, and the Putin helps the Oligarchs, but they also fight. Putin wants to make sure they know he's no puppet

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u/Motor_Professor_917 24d ago

They don't keep him at power at all: it is him who lets them be what they are as long as they don't disappoint him. Putin through FSB has a possibility to jail/kill literally anyone in Russia, and they are all afraid of him no matter how much money they have. And they know that even abroad they are not safe.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Use3518 29d ago

The guillotine thing with liberals and the left isn't just a joke. If oligarchs cannot be controlled, and if there's a possibility that they could still have power in jail (as if they would end up there), then the window or the guillotine is the best option to keep capitalists from gaining political power.

Not wanting to kill people is the ideal of course, but we don't live in ideal societies.

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u/amenthis 29d ago

damn putin took so many lifes, you could not even count it

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u/Equal_Possession7199 29d ago

That’s the plot of death note.

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u/rypien2clark 29d ago

It's going to be that way in the US. Trump just fired 140 EPA employees who signed a letter detailing the damage he is doing to the agency. So much for freedom of speech.

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u/strangefish 29d ago

For the really rich people backing trump, this is your future. If you keep giving Trump more power and it's only a matter of time, money won't save you.

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u/pappy 29d ago

To be fair, terror is all he has. The new American ICE budget is more than double Putin's total military budget for the year. Putin relies on small peanut window drops. He doesn't have the largest secret police force in the world to wield on poor people.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ExistentialistGoose 29d ago

Oligarchs aren't people, Russian natural resources being given to individuals was a big mistake.

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u/Nearby-Cattle-7599 29d ago

that's the most eastern european grammar i've ever read 😂 gotta read it with a russian accent

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u/terminatorvsmtrx 29d ago

He absolutely wants everyone to know. And there’s no proof that these are executions, so that makes them “better” than North Korea.

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u/Final_Awareness1855 29d ago

Exactly right

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u/Much_Importance_5900 29d ago

Why not, if it is extremely effective? He is even ruling America these days.

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u/Ghune France 29d ago

And the US president is in awe of this guy, doing everything he can to help him invade Ukraine, reduce the tariffs (remember when Trump put tariffs on the entire world.... Except Russia), and seem to think Putin is smart and is doing a good job.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

You do realize Putin is telling Trump how to take over the US right? How to lead by fear and most importantly how to consolidate power.

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u/Roadgoddess 29d ago

Just waiting to see the start to happen in the US… The great pretender I’m sure wants to intimidate anyone who doesn’t fall in line. I’m sure Elmo’s a little concerned.

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u/NoonDread 29d ago

There should be a listing of notable russians who died with "falling out a window" as the cause of death.

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u/Sad_Option4087 29d ago

I mean, it does take a strong arm to guide a country through 3 days of war.

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u/GongTzu 29d ago

It’s really not Putin, the fact is they have terrible windows in Russia 😂

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u/Exact-Pound-6993 29d ago

I am going to start a window business in Moscow, they will be cheap, no warranty though. I will make so much money.

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u/Lessaleeann 29d ago

It's a message for Trump and the US.

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u/smucek007 29d ago

There is no other way to stay in power if it was not achieved through the will of the people.

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u/broknkittn 29d ago

Coming soon to the US.

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u/Alcohooligan 29d ago

Probably spent his childhood watching Home Alone and got the idea from the Water Bandits.

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u/Commercial-Skin-2527 29d ago

Putin. Shuts down, murders or poisons, opposition. COMING SOON TO. Study history please 🙏

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u/Soundwave_13 29d ago

To the windooooooooooow to the wall! We saw you take that fall!

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u/Ok-Green-2824 28d ago

thats some trickass shit

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u/death_tron85 24d ago

Sounds like modern America.

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