Quote:
Originally Posted by starkind
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It used to be his rich friends, people we label 'oligarchs'. Remember Putin was a literal nobody who was chosen to succeed Yeltsin. He was a KGB guy without any non-governmental connections. So he made a lot of promises to a lot former Commies who were busy stealing all the stuff that used to belong to 'the people'. He said you can keep stealing stuff it's fine. Putin is real crafty though, so he started slowly replacing those guys with his former KGB buddies and other apparatchiks. This is because the oligarchs are only loyal to their money and Putin knows that. They will support him as long as the good times roll.
The people close to him now are people personally loyal to him. If he falls they will lose everything. He put some of his former 'friends' in jail or otherwise harassed them so they know who the boss is now.
He still depends on the oligarchs though, because they control the media.
That's the hope behind the sanctions. It's why we haven't sanctioned Putin personally. Because he doesn't own anything, has no money. Officially. Can't squeeze what you can't find. But the oligarchs are exposed. They use banks, they're in the monetary system.