had been elected president of russia. before that, all soviet leaders had just been picked by the communist party. they had just been chosen internally by the party up to and including mikhail gorbachev. he was elected as the leader of the new russia after the end of the soviet union. yeltsin was a fascinating i think sort of frequently underestimated figure. in the west, i think we disproportionately remember him for being publicly drunk especially at inappropriate times. but he was a formidable person. he was occasionally brilliant, he could be incredibly cunning and intimidating and he was the first democratically elected leader of russia and that made him the first russian leader to have the problem that democratically elected leaders have all over the world, which is if you get elected democratically, one you re elected, you got to get re-elected. yeltsin got elected in 1991, 1996 he was up for re-election. this is a new problem for a russian, right?
sanctioned russia. he was one of the people that we placed sanctions against. really put a crimp in that deal. rex tillerson was invited to st. petersburg russia and with other oil execs from the u.s. by this summer, we had as this country a very serious beef with them invading ukraine seizing parts of other country. because of the sanctions our government put on them, the state department reached out to all the executives that got invited to that expo in russia and the state department asked them to please not go, that it would be against the interests of the united states of america, it would be against america s interests, it would be bad for our country if they went. guess who went? the guy who donald trump has nominated to lead the state department. given that a number of the sanctions on russia related to oil and natural resource
to whom he handed over power after he surprisingly stepped down on y2k, his prime minister was that sad-faced little devil, vladimir putin. vladimir putin had been prime minister under yeltsin from 99 to 2000, then on y2k yeltsin poofed, vladimir putin became president. to 2008, then went back to being prime minister, and he s been president since then and will run for re-election as president in 2018. this is russia s post this is it. this is russia s post soviet leadership. it has been 25 years, but that s all you have to remember. yeltsin for a hot minute and it ended weird and now putin forever. that s it. but it s interesting. putin very clearly learned from some of yeltsin s experience. he decided that he didn t need to cook up some complicated scheme where banks got involved
to cook up some complicated scheme where banks got involved as auctioneers and bidders and favored rich guys got good deals in state-run business so he could get kickback cash from them, he learned from what happened to yeltsin and decided it didn t have to be nearly as complicated as that. he decided that he would cut out all the middlemen. what putin is believed to have done since he s been in power is he s just taken for himself secretly but he s just taken for himself ownership stakes, big ownership stakes in all of russia s partially state-owned companies. all these massive former soviet enterprises. they re some of the biggest individual companies on earth that control in some cases they have almost monopoly control over some of the elements that we use for things on earth. and they re huge companies. if you hold a stake not in just one or two but all of them and your equity stake mysteriously gets a little bit larger every
then putin ripped his guts out financially speaking. with a blow of the gavel, a russian auctioneneer succeeded on dismembering russia s foremost private oil company. the auction of the corporation s biggest subsidiary, a key oil producer is being seen as one of the most significant steps backwards in russia s 12-year chaotic march towards capitalism. people are scared. they re scared this is not just yukos, this is other companies. they re scared that property rights are flimsy in russia. russian president vladimir putin has cracked down on freedom of the press and eliminated many local elections and now he s staring down some of the country s biggest private businesses. top of his list is mikhail khodorkovsky, russia s richest man. and founder of yukos. he s been in jail for a year on tax fraud charges.