Russians seeking to move money to the West... can establish an LLC and purchase... [real estate] property without revealing... the actual owner... - Karen Dawisha

Money started to flood... in such amounts that they virtually bankrupt the Gorbachev regime first, and then when Yeltsin failed to find the Communist gold, they also significantly handicapped the ability of the Yeltsin regime to succeed.

Bank Rossiya was not... just a vehicle for investment by... what would become Putin's circle. It was... one of the many places where this circle... collaborated with, Russian organized crime. ... concluded ...18.6 percent of the original shares in Bank Rossiya were owned by ...[companies affiliated with] mob boss Gennady Petrov (arrested by Spanish police in 2008 as head of the Tambov-Malyshev crime group).

He was the linchpin. He controlled which foreign companies could register their offices and receive offices. ...[A]ll this property was Soviet property. The Soviet Union hadn't fallen yet. So how was a company... to get access to property to set up... in St. Petersburg? Putin would... assign it.