The Putin system nationalizes the risk and privatizes the reward to loyalists. - Karen Dawisha

[W]hat they saw in... [Putin] was that he had protected Sobchak. And as they said, "He didn't give up Sobchak, and he's not going to give us up."

Putin's ...securing a monopoly position for select firms was a feature ...while deputy mayor. While he professed ...economic liberalization and private property, he ...acted to reduce competition ...and maximize profits for ...friends. In St. Petersburg, Åslund reported, "...Swedish and Finnish businessmen complained about Putin squeezing out their companies ...through ...lawless tax police, to the advantage of [friendly] companies ..."

[I]n... 89-91... the and the conservatives within the Central Committee saw what was happening in Poland, Hungary and... East Germany and became extremely frightened about the unreliability of Gorbachev to... secure their future. They worried that... the communists would have to run as one of many parties, and... be wiped out in the elections, as happened in Poland and Hungary... [T]hey started to move money abroad along established KGB channels... kept safe for the communist party in the event that it became an unfunded legally bound party... [I]nstead... after the 1991 coup the communist party was... outlawed. So... conflict and contention started amongst... KGB groups as to who had knowledge of where the money was.