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Comment on [Gamers Nexus] How 4 People Destroyed a $250 Million Tech Company

pandapoo@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Not a gamer, but I will watch the occasional GN video just for the appreciation for their brand of investigative journalism.

The opening seconds of this video make clear that this is a Serbian company, which makes me assume there is probably additional financial grift and embezzlement tied directly to local organized crime groups.

It’s been at least a decade I’ve done any academic level review on the political economies in the post-Soviet block, but organized crime is pretty systemically entrenched in those countries. Unless something dramatic has changed the last 5-10 years.

My favorite was the Bulgarian Thick Necks, purely because of the name. They were organized crime groups that formed from former USSR top level athletic programs i.e. wrestlers. As far as I know, that wasn’t their official name, just a colloquial term for that type of post-Soviet mafioso.

There is some good reading to be had that explains the specific roles that different groups of former Soviet elites were allowed to fill within the corrupt power vacuum that followed the collapse. A lot of the Putin era assassinations where people who tried to branch out e.g. oligarch businessman who tried to gain political power, or vice versa.

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Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

There is some good reading to be had that explains the specific roles that different groups of former Soviet elites were allowed to fill within the corrupt power vacuum that followed the collapse.

Can you recommend any good books? I haven’t studied Russia much but recently read Killer In The Kremlin and would like to read more.

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- pandapoo@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sorry, like I said it’s been a long time since I spent any real amount of time researching/reading on post-Soviet political economies of eastern bloc countries.
  
  I can tell you that most of what I was reading was in peer-reviewed journals, which I’m sure are still available with the right keyword searches on LexusNexis…or Library Genesis.
  
  If you aren’t already, I would recommend checking out Vlad Vexler. Who is a Soviet-born, political philosopher/academic, and one of the better English language sources for intimate and nuanced explanations and analysis of the Russian political system, including the competing power structures and political dynamics of Putin’s court.
  
  Here’s a keyword to jump start your search:
  
  Silovik
  
  That’s the term for the corrupt actors within the intelligence community, or close ties to it.
  
  I asked Llama for examples Siloviki who tried to amass power and influence outside their domain, and it provided me with this response:
  
  Examples of siloviki who have tried to amass power in different fields and faced consequences include:
  
  Mikhail Khodorkovsky: A former FSB officer who became a successful businessman and politician, but was eventually imprisoned and exiled after he began to challenge the Kremlin’s authority.
  
  Boris Berezovsky: A former KGB officer who became a wealthy businessman and politician, but was eventually forced into exile after he began to challenge the Kremlin’s authority.
  
  Alexander Lebed: A former KGB officer who became a politician and governor of Krasnoyarsk, but was eventually killed in a helicopter crash under mysterious circumstances.
  
  It’s worth noting that the Kremlin’s tolerance for siloviki accumulating power in different fields can vary depending on the individual and the circumstances. Some siloviki may be allowed to build significant business or political empires, while others may be subject to strict limits or even persecution.
  
  To be fair, I haven’t double checked the veracity for the people cited above, but only because even if their hallucinations, it aligns with how I understand their system of checks and balances to operate.
  
  The system is setup this way, to give Putin the ability to play mediator for when disputes arise and be the bridge between rival factions. So, he remains up top, and no one is capable to amas enough power to seriously challenge him.
  
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