Why has CAPITALISM failed in RUSSIA? - VisualPolitik EN
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After abandoning communism, Russia does not seem to have entered an era of prosperity. Quite the contrary. The Russians are still a long way from entering what we might call the "developed world." And their economy has nothing to do with the free market capitalism we see in the United States, Europe or many parts of Asia.
Russia's recent decades have been dominated by corruption, financial crises and many regions living in poverty. What has gone wrong in this country? Why has Russia failed in its transition to capitalism? What role do Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin have in this story? And what exactly is siloviki capitalism? In this video we tell you.
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The sloviki example showed a company that miraculously improved in a sector the state already invested heavily in . For example gazprom was aquired fairly, the second example was of corruption and a mayor who was arrested for it . Writers in Spain are becoming too dominated by cnn sky opinions
How putinomics works was a better portrayal of the Russian leader and his nations situation
Started off well, and then you spoke of Navalny that disgusting rat who sold himself to the West. He is not a threat to Putin, and Putin would not make such a public poisoning. He was poisoned by the very same people who sponsored him so as to create a scandal. You have not done enough research.
The many who were arrested were also scoundrels, they took government money and didn’t pay back. Grants fed the pockets of the management. They are known for tax evasion also. There is no need to glorify the “poor” company owners who were thrown in jail.
Russia is sounding like a failed state run by the legal state mafia , headed by Vladimir Putin
Edit: look at the Russian trolls
Russian here.
"Will Putin successed to Siloviki" - not so easy question. Siloviki are not moonlit. There are competing clans in them. Putin always played a role of the orbiter, not allowing one silovik clan to get to much power. What will happen? No one knows, but defiantly Putin and the elites are thinking about the transit of power. Declining popularity of Putin is not making this transit easier for them.
I don't think there will be a collapse. Russia is more stable then USSR. Instead of collapse there will be slow decay.
USSR slowly decay till they realize the hard reality try make some reform but that speed up the collapse
@@raulepure9840 it wasn't them (nomenclature) who realize catastrophes ahead. It was oil prices collapsed which hit Soviet economy hard (Brezhnev made oil and gaz main export for USSR). They had no other chose to start reforms (perestroika main focus was economy reforms. freedoms and rights were additional "bonus"), but they didn't know how and it was already too late.
Russia is already decaying. Infrastructure crumbling (I only went to the Ural, but the difference to Moscow/St.P was astonishing), wages in decline, taxes go up, retirement age go up, young and qualified leaving the country...
> "Russia is more stable then USSR. Instead of collapse there will be slow decay."
Isn't a slow decline sometimes (or under some conditions) worse that a fast collapse?
I mean, I imagine that after a fast collapse you realize that you need to get to work to restore everything, and in a slow decay you lose more time until things are impossible to avoid. However, don't know if this would apply to modern Russia.
@al rode Shoigu minister of defence / ex-minister of emergency , Bastrikin, director of Investigative Committee, Bortnikov directoir of FSB, Kolokocev director of the Police. These are the heads of siloviks in Russia and undying source of soviet boomers memes about evil west and foreign agents
Because it never really had it. They went straight from full communism to oligarchy in the blink of an eye.
The Soviet Union was never “full communism”
Yeah I think Russia has suffered under Soviet-style State Socialism or ''communism'' (to a certain extent) and Crony Capitalism under Putin's Oligarchy currently unfortunately. It's a shame that Russia isn't* a highly developed high-income country right now even though it could be smh....... 😞
I agree, their economy is still very heavily socialist. With the state having its fingers all the pies. An economy dominated by corporations, state owned or not ain’t capitalism.
The natural end result of capitalism is oligarchy. Just as the natural result of stage I cancer is stage IV cancer
@@callmedave1280 or it’s the natural result of a previously corrupt communist economy collapsing and many of those previously in power retaking it.
I think Russia ranks 98th on the economic freedom index. Which puts it far down the scale when it comes to capitalism, barely capitalist at all. More mercantilist than anything else IMHO and as far as I know.
The issue is how capitalism was implemented, allowing oligarchs to control entire sectors of the economy stifled growth , monopolies do not allow competition which is the cornerstone of capitalism. In my opinion
If anything, mercantilist is a good word
It's a plutocracy.
@@Sorcerers_Apprentice ? Plutocracy is where the money buys the presidency, ie , an American presidential race where the more money ( donations accumulated) you have to spend the more likely you are to win
@@angryatheist what a bad take ! America isnt perfect but it is not Russia and it is still a lot freer than Russia and probably majority of Asia and Africa and eastern Europe and south America . Using whataboutism is such a bad way to use criticize or defend a country.
I have always been fascinated with internal politics since it’s the cornerstone of a successful/failed state. Especially given how countries such as China have managed to develop their light industry whilst at that time having a low profile in international politics. There’s even a famous quote by Deng Xiaoping: “hide your strength, bide your time” just fascinating
Really ?! International relations is real domestic is propaganda… why do you enjoy that ? Serious question…
@@AT-wj5sw what do you mean by propaganda? Is economic development through industry, commerce etc. the growth of tourism and other means of making the land valuable propaganda? Look at UAE they managed to transform a worthless desert land with very limited resources into a hub of growth and prosperity, don’t you find it amazing?
China behaved with international politics very well until 2010 but know is causing trouble global is a liability for our world. While having a low profile is good it of have good to a high profile but of current world scenario, China could have helped the world and worked with other country to move humanity forward.
@@addu-fx7ps unfortunately this is not the path the CCP chose and now many countries dislike their wolf warrior diplomacy. Hence I believe Deng’s choice to be a third player would have been better for China they could have built meaningful relationships out of trust and not fear/intimidation
@@emilhuseynov6121 i think people mistaken Deng for a pacifist, its not that Deng dont want China be assertive but China back then isnt in a place where it can be, hence the quote hide your strength and bide your time. Xi is obviously not a dumb man if he can climb up the ranks in politburo. Its just simply that he judged that its time for China to stop hiding their strength, China's economy is catching up and soon to be surpassing USA, and they need to modernize their military, you can't hide that shit anymore, everyone is gonna notice that sooner or later and USA will start forcing China to stop that growth like they did to Japan.
Its same with people misunderstanding the TianAnMen square incident, many people thought its just students protesting for freedom that get surpressed, however, its not the case until the late stages of the protest. The protest started out over the soaring prices of certain necessity products after Deng's reforms of opening up the market, which lead to many unable to afford crucial stuff. The protest is a call for government to fix that, however the government is paralyzed, unsure on how to deal with the protest and reforms, there are 2 factions in the government that has different thoughts on how to deal with the protest, a hardcore conservative faction which insist on suppressing the protest quickly; and a moderate faction of Deng which sought to be slightly more democratic and reform & practice the rule of law.
While both factions are arguing with each other, the moderate faction will tell the students that they will negotiate the reforms for the students,etc. which the students at first happily accept but as the factions keep arguing about the solution, no solution is provided, which slowly raise the students anger. When a leader of the moderate faction dies, the student believing that its a conspiracy that cause his death rose up, and become more violent, demanding the change of the system. With the infighting and the out of control of the protest, the moderates has lost the debate on how to deal with the protest and its clear to the government right now the suppression is needed, which results in the 1989 incident. The conservative faction take control after the incident as moderate faction took the blame for the incident. But the whole out of control incident could have been avoided if either side took decisive action early on, either you negotiate the reforms and implement it well, fast; or you quickly suppress the protest when its non violent and small scale, and quickly address the soaring prices problem to avoid another one. Its the indecisiveness of the government that end up making the problem bigger that it actually was and harder to solve.
As Russian I may confirm that 99% of this information is correct. He only misspelled the names.
Yes, he did. But as he obviously doesn't know russian language he has to rely on transcribed names. And you know how well that works, both ways.
Give him some slack, he tried at least...
Yeah, any hope for democracy died on October 4, 1993. Sad but true.
@@shryggur 😫😫😫
😭😭😭
I don't think there is a standardisation to translate Cyrillic script to latin script. I've seen Russian names being spelled different across various European languages, as they have different phonetic interpretations of the Latin script, making different spellings more convenient
I work for a charity and included in a donation was a large amount of high denomination roubles from the 1990's, Guess what? The serial numbers were those from Yeltsin's period of hyper-inflation and about as valuable as toilet paper. I took it on the chin but it told a story of real hardship in Russia at that time that hardly made the news. Yeltsin got away with it because the West preferred him to anyone that might have smelt like a Communist. All the news was about billionaires and the lives of ordinary Russians swept under the carpet and that is still the case today. It's the same in China who have eradicated poverty apparently. For the sake of balance I include many Western countries that evade scrutiny as well. The mainstream media's appalling level of coverage of in depth global events is risible.
The mainstream media is not there to upset the applecart but to continue to promote their own oligopoly.!
Russia is a corporate vertically integrated state. The stakeholders are the "elite" (not always "siloviki" by the way), they constitute 3% of the Russian population. They own more than 90% of Russian riches. 110 people (so-called oligarchs) own 35% of resources, riches, and cash in the country. A corporate state cannot live without capitalism but it is definitely not free-market capitalism. Another thing is that Russia has never been a nation-state. There are more than 160 ethnic groups living in the country. It has always been an empire that has been adding colonies but has never had a parent state. North Ossetia or Checnya in their culture and traditions are more similar to Iran or some countries in Central Asia than to Moscow and the central regions of the country. The freedom which is necessary for capitalism scares the people in power as they see it brings the risks of disintegration. All of these specifics can be the reason why capitalism failed.
I remember the news about people being paid by the goods they were producing-
If you worked in a textile factory you'll be paid in socks and bras.
If you work in a limestone quarry you'll be paid in a tombstone etc.
This led to some crazy stories about a full-on barter economy; Imagine Craigslist as a nation.
That was under socialism. I've heard a lot of crazy stories from then. People did all sorts of nuts stuff to survive. Be it trading hospital beds, to just outright robbery (btw 90% of food was provided by kitchen gardens and/or hunting, the people learnt not to rely on government for food after multiple man made famines).
One of my favourite stories on barter was a man comes across a guy selling a number of different size shoes on the street, all of them for the left foot. The man says "why would I want a shoe that doesn't fit me?" And he gets shouted at "so what do you care if it fits or not, you can use it to trade". Trying to remember where I heard that story from but I always thought the seller almost had a point. Sure the shoe might not fit the guy, and it's not even a pair of shoes. But he might find someone who needs it, who happens to have something he wanted
In what year was that? :o
@@LuisRomeroLopez 90s.
@@LuisRomeroLopez since the forming of the USSR to it's collapse. There's a 30s/40s quote from a communist true believer that I like, Gunter Reimann "we had to break the plan in order to follow the plan". Basically from the top of society to the bottom the whole thing was a haphazard approach to production, pay etc. They seen rivers turn to orange foam, millions starving to death etc etc. Just cause they didn't want to admit defeat. It's why corruption became the norm, and the lifeblood that kept them functioning
@@yv3009 "Deficiency" didn't disappear until the the late 90s. And not worrying about having to eat only went away in the Putin stabilization. Before that, especially in the early 90s the majority of people had it worse then before the collapse. We had a neighbor who eat his two dogs in one winter because he was to proud to say that he had literally nothing else left and ask for help.
Deficiency was not the norm. There was no famine after 1947 and 63' we were close to one. After that, food security wasn't an issue. The issue was in variaty. The next time it was a problem was after the collapse. 92' the caloric intake plunged about quarter in comparison to before.
Ironically, this system isn't too different from South Korea with it's corporate conglomerates that are closely tied to political candidates. And even in the US, most Congressmen have their campaigns backed by financial support from lobbyists who represent billion dollar companies. It's only the White House that's been partially able to stay independent until recently (and that's questionable too). In Russia, the reach of the state is just a bit longer, but that has more to do with the culture of governing in Russia rather than any fundamental difference from other superpowers. China is an extreme case of this. You cannot achieve that degree of state control without "willing" participation of millions of citizens at every level of government from small towns to supercities. The regime stands on those millions of militiamen ("party members") to strong arm the rest of the citizens.
That's why both China and Russia are most worried about foreign media and it's influence on the culture of it's people. Because once people stop believing in the "normality" of their countries governments, everything will start to go wrong for authoritarian regimes.
This goes both ways though, authoritarian thinking could also infect citizens of more libertarian and capitalist nations with the promise of more prosperous times through a more "controlled" economy. A highly infectious idea in an age where the free market deems obsolete entire industries every couple of years these days. Not that China or Russia would have any interest in saving those industries. In fact they'd be even more aggressive with eliminating underperformers, because they don't have to concern themselves with public media or the lost votes. But most people don't think far enough to imagine that reality.
So at the end of the day, the only deciding difference, is the independence and performance of the judiciary and police forces. Are they serving the law or the state? And by extension, is the law serving the economy or the state. That is the only spectrum on which capitalism vs communism effectively lies. The supposed market difference is a red herring in this age (though it was real in the USSR, but also died with it).
@@viktorjancik2737 Great comments Viktor, thankyou. This is a risk for the 'liberal' economies of the West; maybe eventually they also will fall victim to this centralisation of power and privelege. Maybe they have already.
@@linmal2242 They have one advantage: They can feel how they loose freedom and can look for the reasons. It's a privilege people in other more authoritarian nations don't have.
@@aryeh24 Indeed, freedom of speech (with the exemption of hate speech and propagation of extremist ideology) is fundamental to any government that wants to keep corruption in check. In most democratic countries nowadays, investigative journalists keep the government and companies more honest than any actual governmental oversight agencies.
@@viktorjancik2737 absolutely. And if media becomes too consolidated, at one point free journalists take over that role and grow into media empires themselves. In free societies, there is always the chance that truth prevails if people are not too corrupt integrity-wise.
Russia does not really make much of anything- specifically sold as an export. Their export economy relies heavily on digging stuff out the ground and selling it as basic commodities. If you look at their biggest exports there is hardly anything manufactured compared to say developed Western economies where the list of exports is usually stuff like cars, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machinery, medical equipment. Or services like financial or educational. That means the country's wealth lays in the hands of those in a tiny minority controlling those raw materials. One reason why Russia has such terrible income equality, the most unequal economy in the entire world! Wealth creation for the wider population has to be about people being able to create businesses, grow them, employ other people thus raising their standard of living, then grow some more. This is very difficult in the economic and political environment Russia currently has.
They still build decent rocket engines. But what they build is based on Sowjet designed.
@@kelvinekline5950 I think their comment was more meant in the lines of that we do not really have Russian products that we all use - designed or produced there. I'd have difficulties thinking what do I have which would have the label "made in Russia" on it, living in the EU. Stuff from US, EU, China - yes. Nothing from Russia.
@@kelvinekline5950 Yeah, I think you are probably right. And let's not forget the imposed sanctions. Although ridiculed, I'm sure they have a part to play in it as well.
@@kelvinekline5950 America is the second most industrialized country in the world. It exports more than 2.5 trillion worth of goods to the EU and Mexico and Canada especially.
@@kelvinekline5950
Still, most American products are designed in America, same with Japan and South Korea.
Russia does not have any companies that are wealthy enough to expand into other markets
Next video: "Why Communism and Socialism Failed in the West."
They didn't...
Next video: “Why socialism is taking root in the West”
Socialism did not fail in the west, its everywhere represented.
American revolutionaries were either bribed, censored, exiled or assassinated.
@@alexsilent5603Where's the worker owned factories?
Who told you that capitalism failed în Russia?
On contrary!
@JaceBass
Not only that.
Russians only earn a couple hundred Euros.
@JaceBass
Russia is not broke. There is no country that has an absolute free market. There are regulations of many different things. For example, financial inflows, investment policy, local content policy, technologically transfers inwards and outwards, and even movement and use of labour, because there is no country that permits unrestricted migration and allows non citizens access equally to all the sorts of jobs that its own citizens qualify for.
Even though 100% capitalism (like in US) is bad, in case of Russia it is not a question of capitalism or communism or any other system, it is a question of corruption and oligarchy. Corruption and oligarchy are what is holding Russia back from developing and living up to its potential.
Edit: yes, I know. There is no 100% capitalistic country in the world, but US is the "closest" of all to 100%. It is just a turn of phrase.
The US and Russia have one thing in common- they are both plutocracies(ruled by the rich)
@@catninja4950 , imo, the difference is that in US people can change the system but don't want to. And in Russia, the other way around, people want to change the system but cannot. But in both countries propaganda is strong (especially against each other).
At the end of the daym isn't everything about "corruption and oligarchy"?
I mean, I guess that free market capitalism and social democracy could work at least fine in Latinamerica, but guess what seems to be the main problem. 🙃
I don't think you understand the u.s. very well if you think we are 100% capitalist lol In fact many of our problems has to do with too much nationalizing of companies in the past
@@erica.7231 Wait... Does the US has a considerable history of nacionalization of companies?
If they have, I don't think is larger that some we have in Latinameirca. And in correlation with the original post, I guess we all can agree that the US has more free market that Russia, and even some developed european countries.
Yeltsin brought capitalism to Russia, but he failed. At the time, many russians prefered USSR than "free market economy". BTW, Ha-Joon Chang (Economics, Cambridge-UK) wrote the book "Kicking Away The Ladder". In the very first chapter he explains:
*_"there is no free market. There is no such thing as a 'Free Market' ."_*
He didn't even really bring capitalism to the country. Yeltsin started as a communist and took the country from communism to state capitalism, there was never any free market or competition since everything went to former government officials after Yeltsin broke apart the state monopolies, he just changed the names and transferred companies from government officials to former government officials and called it "privatization".
there's a joke made by one economist in 90s about that this is exactly how you would expect from Marxist to build the capitalism
one of my teachers who has been to russia told me when he was travelling in russia he asked a local guide’s opinion on putin .and the guide said :Putin?Another oligarch in Moscow.
That's very true..
I appreciate the perspective, but oligarchy and capitalism aren't inherently mutually exclusive. Just because there's massive wealth inequality doesn't make capitalism unsuccessful in and of itself. It means that democracy is unsuccessful in that context.
I think we can all agree that Russia does not have anything resembling a democracy.
Of course. Oligarchy that is not visible on the surface is the foundation of modern democracy. You have a few oligarchs owning the media and funding a few competing parties. When their party win because of election , they create distraction laws and pass thing beneficial to their masters silently. Putin went a slightly different route , the media is government controlled partially and it praises him. He throws bones to the most active and susceptible to TV democraphic : older women retired or near retirement. The problem is that this is also people who actually show up to the polling stations during elections.
Historical lessons have shown that a people must want democracy and free marketing. Some states so used to “strong man” rule cannot get past believing this is the only way that works.
I think it is important to take a look at the past, well before Jeltsin, yes even long before Communism.
Russia once had a working free-market - in the 16th century. Fact is that the colonization of Siberia wasn't initiated by the Russian state but by a fur merchant named Stroganov who hired a cossack named Jermak Timofeyev to open up this fur trade by breaking the Siberian khanate. The Russian state came limping on the heels of the Stroganovs after the fact.
Now the case was that Ivan the terrible had in his paranoia eradicated much of leadership of the state. His dynasty died with his son Fyodor I. Where were all cousins of branches of his imperial family? Simple: His paranoid majesty had had them killed, all of them... So when a peasant rebellion broke out, Moscow was as helpless as Soviet Union had been when Operation Barbarossa started up.
The civil war then started ("The Great Confusion") was terrible. Farming, crafts, religion, education, all sectors of Russian society suffered massively. Millions must have succumbed. Finally the great men of the state managed to agree on a new czar and elected Mikhail Romanov for the dignity. He was a man of weak will and health, he was probably going to be a simply guided figurehead.
But the boyars were wrong, there were strong willed guys behind him. Under the new Romanov dynasty the Russian state took over full command to rebuild Russia - and never let go... Foreign diplomats were astonished to find out how the court of Peter the great was more like a bureaucratic complex than an epitome of high culture and manners.
This free but not liberal economy kept on in this style in the coming ages. A free market economy yes but with the state in control of several critical economic sectors, to the degree that during the 19th century the commercial company larger than all others in Russia combined, was the Russian state. It can be argued that the deep-seated alcoholism in Russia goes back to this time - bars and all hospitality businesses in Russia were under the czars only one of numerous state monopolies, the Russian state earned too well on drunkenness to consider doing anything to remedy it, actually the coffers earned fat on Russian inebriation...
On why it has been so impossible to make Russians create a market economy, it can be concluded that Russians have had a long time to forget how a free economy works, there has never been any real market economy since the early 17th century...
Russia still has capitalism. The USA doesn't even claim to have a free market as they are a mixed economy. That is a mixture of capitalism and socialism. Russia probably has a similar system though the details differ. Free market capitalism may never have existed.
Essentially, unless Russian government willingly agrees to drop some of its political grip over the country and to leave space for democratic rights and the rule of law, nothing would change for the better. There is an excellent book written on this topic, called "Why Nations Fail". I strongly recommend you read it - Russia / USSR is mentioned there plenty of times
Losing the grip would mean less money for Putin and friends. So no way.
Losing the grip = risk to lose power. Putin will not do it.
@@markodmytriyev4215May you elaborate?
@@markodmytriyev4215I bet you will say "mUhm UsA eLeCtIoN wErE rIgGed".
We can’t forget that the idea of ruling by the “iron fist” appeared as a reaction to separatists movements in Russia, particularly in Chechnya. If you say ‘losing the grip’ many people who saw 90-es hear ‘losing bonds that connect different regions of Russia and leading to collapse’. Democratization must be done by economy sense but many Russians won’t support the idea and in elections (which theoretically will be fair) will vote for the candidate who promise to renew strong government control of many aspects of live.
Russian joke:
Сould Elon Mask set up Tesla in Russia?
No, he wouldn't got out of jail for PayPal yet
I remember seeing article named "Russian Elon Musk died in prison from rape and torture"
9:57, regarding "life time leadership in Russia". This is due 2 reasons:
1) Such "opposition" party leaders are loyal to Putin regime and Putin don't see reason to change them
2) Russian party laws are written in a such way that it is very hard to change your party leader. You need to get an agreement from Russian state for that. Russian state can declare such party session illegal. That is the reason that even in democratic party like Yabloko we have the same leader from 90s
"(...)hard to change your party leader. You need to get an agreement from Russian state for that." This is mindblowing! What's the logic and lawfulness of the state meddling in internal affairs of political parties... anyway, very interesting and telling, thanks for the insight!
@@tomekdarda yes, that is crazy. There was an episode when communist party members organized session on which they removed Zyuganov from power. Zyaganov immediately organized another session with other members which stated that Zyaganov is still leader of KPRF. Then Russian Government (Ministry of Justice) proclaim that first session was illegal and Zyaganov is a leader.
If you want to organize a new party you need to register it in the same Ministry of Justice, and belive me, you can't register it without an approval from Kremlin.
@@chatnoir1224 this is quite depressing, actually. It seems like corruption to the bone and a vicious circle. How to even start the change?
@@tomekdarda real opposition is arrested, killed, forced outside of the country. fake opposition, like communists, well Putin regime don't trust them either, so even they are under constant pressure.
hundreds of independent media and individual journalists are proclaimed to be "foreign agents" and forced by state to write "I am foreign agent" in social media every time they make a post. (for example, even you took a photo of your child in a park and upload it to instagram - you must write "I am foreign agen"t text in comments. I am not joking, this is the real law. You can go to jail if you don't do it)
So independent political, media and civil groups are persecuted. What is next? Stalin's terror teach us that at some point monster will start eating itself, and putin's loyalist will be attacked aswell.
I don't see a solution. Russian median age is 40 years, and revolution are driven by youth. We don't have enough youth, Plus regime has an army of police which train regularly to fight protester's.
They will be no change, unless Putin decides that. But he won't . He tried to switch with Medvedev in 2008 and he hated it. Plus he saw how "transit of power" happened in Kazahstan - fake president Tokaev basicly overthrew "GREAT LEADER AND FATHER OF THE NATION" Nazarbaev in a week. So no, no transit of power in Russia.
I hoped Covid will do the job, but there was no miracle :)
"However no one in the west raised their voice". That explains a lot...
I visited the USSR for the years from 1991-1996. I saw the phase change from autocracy to oligarchy. To reduce a complex analysis I would say that the US is as much to blame as the oligarchs. The ordinary Russian did not begin to understand capitalism. They gave the shares they were allocated in State enterprises
…for cigarettes, drink etc. as they were valueless to them. But, not to the oligarchs… Etc, etc, etc a million or billion-fold. You also have little idea of the understory of LUKOIL….. ETC, etc, etc….
Also, I had breakfast with the President of Bashneft in 1995… Your analysis is paper-thin I’m afraid.
I will really love to see you comments on my homeland of Bulgaria. The poorest country in EU, with the fastest lowering population with higher levels compared to countries like Syria where there is a war...
@@kelvinekline5950 and still, Bulgaria is doing better than Russia lol
@@kelvinekline5950 Sure, actually the country promoted oligarchy same as Russia because perestroika blyat. So the entire country money go to former national team of wrestling. Personally I think that both communism and democracy in their pure definition are utopia. But the communism promotes equality of people when in reality there are people with much higher potential and demand for work. The issue of communism is that low educated former partisans and friends of the regime are rulers of the country. In contrast this people are general workers in democracy because you know they don't have capacity :)
@@kelvinekline5950 I admit I was wrong. As per world Bank data Bulgaria in 2020 has a GDP per capita $150 lower than Russia (10,126 USD Vs 9,975 USD). I think this underscores that Bulgaria is not doing any worse than Russia despite the "great benefits" that Russia has to offer. And now let's hear the usual "GDP is a faulty measurement" narrative.
You are free to travel and emigrante, on Syria things are complicated
I'm not sure I understand the premise. Russia does capitalism better than almost anywhere else. Almost all of the wealth is in the hands of a very small number of political elites while the poor fight over the scraps while also being extremely nationalistic and loyal to their country. That sounds like capitalism working exactly as it's supposed to.
Capitalism degenerated into barbarism
Good video, I am a long Fan of your channel. I wonder if is it possible to link your sources? This would add another level of transparency
I see nothing wrong with being outside in your underpants trying to hail a cab because you want some pizza.
Corruption is endemic in capitalism.
There will be no economic collapse like USSR collapse for one important reason:
The leadership of modern Russia is much more economically competent than the leadership of the soviet union. Even with low oil prices there will be no collapse, because of “national reserve” which was created for such cases. But what could happen is a “political” collapse due to the transformation of an authoritarian regime into a dictatorship.
Love it here! Nice content 👍🏽
Great video, Grant! Link to the videos you mention are missing in the description
Great information on the relationship between Russia's politics and business always heard of rosneft seems like they're the modern day standard oil but with modern restrictions
By the way the inflation rate in britain hits 5.4% atm and the bank of england says the only way out is to not raise the wages of workers. Thats functioning capitalism at its finest.
Misquoting much? Neither did the governor say it’s the only way, nor did he say no to pay rises, simply to be modest (which can of course be debated).
Government closes businesses and prints money, blames business for inflation, genius!
@@tedarcher9120 lmao. Great comment.
What a great video.
I learned a lot of new things.
Keep it up.
That’s what she said .
@@J-SH06 LMAO.
You are by far the best host on VisualPolitik! I can only watch the videos that you narrate.
The title should better be “Why has DEMOCRACY failed in Russia? Having been in Russia in 1990 and comparing it with today the economic situation has improved immensely. And that is a reason for Putin’s still relatively high popularity. The disaster of capitalism in Russia in the Yeltsin years back then had a lot to do with western advisers who only produced oligarchs but no improvement for the ordinary folks. Btw am I not sure whether capitalism was such a big success for the U.S. and other western countries.
take away the oil and gas and there is no Russian economy
Ya definitely not a success for US. Only launched US into the premier economic and military power in the world, helped win the biggest war in human history, and lifted millions out of poverty. But yes if only we had been Communist instead.....
@@michaeldunham3385 Right. Not much has changed since the Soviet Union. But Russia‘s leaders learned to full their pockets by installing a state run „market“.
@@cyrilsuperkonar3422 socialism doesn't work
@@michaeldunham3385 say it to Nordic countries
5:53 The seat of the Russian Federation's 'parliament' (Duma) being called the "White House" is confusing when 1 has always, prior to this video, associated the term w/a Head of Government's residence.
Excellent report!
Russia never had a middle class and has no culture of building a broad economic base.
Kraut is a really good video about the historical reasons for it.
After seventy years of being told capitalism is evil and corrupt, they could only understand it as evil and corrupt.
I always wondered why they didn’t model themselves on the Nordics.
Although the legacy of tsarism and stalinism was always going to be authoritarianism, even chekism, since they knew nothing else.
There are some good points in the video but in a number of aspects mentioned in the video there is a complete lack of understanding what has been going on in Russia and - for that matter - in other Central and Eastern European countries. You cannot really understand developments in those countries by looking at them through the lenses of Hollywood-like simplification.
You are right about lack of understanding but it’s a 16 minutes video episode and it does cover the highlights so I did get the key points of the actual picture.
Perfect timing guys. I was very curious about this after watching the last Russia video.
Informative!
If Russia became really democratic and peaceful liberal state it'd have to loosen its grip on its vast land, including occupied North Caucasus, Tatarstan and far east. In other words Russia is an imperial state and once it became democratic it'd stop exist. The country as a whole can be strong and rich, but common individuals can never be in this equation.
Right on. Russia is an empire pretending to be a nation-state
I like how they never actually leave a video link in the description for the videos they talk about in the vid 😂
Awesome shirt! Where did you find?
Lets first define banana republic: It is country dependent on natural resources where these resources are owned by foreigners. Yeltsin model almost turned Russia into a banana republic and current Western policy is to pressure Russia to become banana republic, or find strongmen will lead nation to fight through hard times. Read Russian history, from Mongols to this day. Anti-bolshevik war facilitated Stalin's rise to absolute power, so Putin's successor will be as tough as him or worse. Alternative is Libyan scenario.
i think we need a video better detailing the life in everyday Russia... I'd like to know more !
The fact that we get free documentaries on TH-cam by VisualPolitik is truly a gift 👍👍👍
It is!
Democracy and capitalism are not the same.
Oh, this looks very exciting!
The capitalist US is vast as well, have you heard of Detroit and the eastern rust belt. People think the US is just lalaland and New York.
Don't forget Texas!
To an average outsider america amounts to: Manhattan, Hollywood, Texas and sometimes Miami
very good journalism. keep up the good work.
11:50 xD They started to see difference but only after losing half of their gdp.
Economic freedom index rating tells you all you need to know.
Per Capita income isn’t the only way to designate an economy as developed/ developing
Russia relies heavily on commodities and has no real service industry or manufacturing. It’s most definitely an undiversified developing economy
You should go and inform yourself on textiles, fertilizer, cement, glass, steel, aluminium, automobile parts fabrication and assembly, mining and agricultural machinery, and machine tools production before you make such a statement.
I think people mistaking neoliberalism, Liberal Ideology and democracy for capitalism and equally people in comment section are mistaking communism and socialism with oligarchy and facism
Yea absolutely, the problem is that they are often very connected in the states a d Systems, however it doesnt mean that they cant be combined differently.
You have two to three things,
Political Power and System, aka democracy or dictatorship/ authoritarianism,
Economical Power and System, aka capitalism or communism.
And Ideological Power and System, it is made out of the other two and or can be another thing like Religion.
The problem is, that what i just said isnt really true. Specificly the examples.
These Systems, these components are so intertwined and mixed its hard to
impossible to differentiate them.
Communism is an Ideological idea, for a different Economical System for more equality.
However im reality, its always a central plan economy, which is perfekt for authoritarianism.
Democracy and capitalism go often Hand in Hand, yet they can be vastly different from System to System.
How ever (in my opinion) capitalism (free capitalism ) is not what makes democracy good and strong, but rather weak.
Economical Power is just as Important as political Power. And over time some families gain more and more wealth and Power. This is then passend down from Generation to Generation, just like a Monarchie/ Feudalism. There by democracy is comoromised.
At the same time, what makes capitalism good, free market competition, is also comprimised by the mentioned above, by itselve.
The point of capitalism isnt to make everyone wealthy, but to gain and hord wealth and Power.
The competition for it is what generates wealth and good things for everyone.
However the goal is to get yourselve into a Position, that removes competition and need to create something of value, to take without giving.
And this is what happenes sooner or later.
You get big companies and rich guys that can also influece politics.
And sudenly a few have all the Power, that they use to grow and maintain thier Power. And everything that was once good is gone.
This can also happen the otherway around if someone gains to mutch political Power, tho it often goes Hand in Hand.
The only solution (that i see) is to closly watch and keep the balance of Power.
Power must be divided as mutch as possible, more Importantly it must be save guarded. Change happens slowly.
There is one simple rule: change allways happens, and what doesnt get better gets worse.
Only if there is a hundred percent awareness in the shift of Power, only if there is 0 tolerance towards buildup and hoarding of Power.
Only then we will keep Our feedom forever and make the World better in the process.
Yeltsin wasn't just an alcoholic, he probably had bipolar disorder.
Clinton was good to talk with Yeltsin cause his father was an alcoholic so he knew how to handle Yeltsin.
It was in Clinton's interest to keep Yeltsin in Power in Russia.
A sudden opening to the world market is a big mistake if your own economy is not competitive. Free trade only leads to mutual prosperity between COMPARILY STRONG economies. Free trade is not an end in itself and is therefore not always a good thing. In the case of unequal economic partners, protectionism is the right choice. A state-controlled economic policy that is SLOWLY letting go of the reins. The economic areas first have to adjust to some extent before it makes sense to remove all trade barriers.
That sign isn’t in Russian, not sure which Slavic language it is in maybe Serbian
According to Google Translate it's Macedonian)
@@Sfaxx Good detective work 👍
Thank you for this. I only dimly remember learning that Yelstin was the leader of Russia in school, and I didn't realize that so many of the things we criticize Putin for had already been going on under his predecessor. It makes his rise to power make more sense, it makes the Russian people make more sense.
Good summary. Thanks for that. FYI: "Siloviki" is pronounced with all 'i' letters as 'ee' and the accent on the last 'i'.
where are the links to the videos you mentioned?
To be honest I'm not a big fan of this channel but I've seen that thumbnail of a video about russia contains a coke add from other Slavic country (it's in Macedonian according to Google Translate) and wanted to comment on that 😅 But decided it would be unfair without watching a video and surprisingly (at least for me) it was a quite good introduction/overview of this topic!
I think the claim of independent reporting might be true but it is a very partisan channel, definitely takes pro - US stance on everything
I saw it too hahah I am Macedonian and came to comment it xD
@@angryatheist what's pro US in this video?
Capitalism didn't 'fail'- it works exactly as intended in Russia, in the exact same dynamic as Slavs slaving under Tsarist nobility, Stalinist party-member elites, and modern oligarchs; everything accumulating up, leaving less and less for everyone else.
Oh I get it now, use to play an old game called Soviet Strike, you have to rescue Yeltsin, but he can't drive for shit and has to stop for a burger, all while you're destroying tanks trying to kill him.
Pantera in early 1990: Playing clubs in the south eastern USA
Pantera in late 1991: playing to a million people and the Red Army in a park in Moscow
It's always very funny to see how americans have no idea how privileged they are; comparing their country to russia lmao.
Yuval Harari discussed the phenomena quite well. Totalitarian regimes cannot compete with distributed management brought by liberalism/capitalism.
You always lose focus and miss important things on the economy. What seemed to work at first becomes a catch up game and at some point it spirals out of control.
But Russia is not totalitarian.
@@G0TIMAN yeah Russia is authoritarian, totalitarian regimes to my knowledge currently are - North Korea, Eritrea and Turkmenistan
@@shzarmai And why not Iran and Chin if Russia is totalitarian? How do you define difference between authoritarian and totalitarian?
@@G0TIMAN Russia is authoritarian while China is totalitarian. There is things you can get away with you can’t in china. Also, china underplays everything a lot like covid by a order of scale bigger than anything I have seen. While Russia less so and with covid data much more reliable and death while undercounted, it may only be a factor of two so just double just official death from covid to see real picture and data showing excess deaths proves that.
@@addu-fx7ps So totalitarian state is when your country can deal with covid?
Very nicely explained sir Regards from 🇮🇳
9:10 actually, it's not because government was stupid.
Parliament didn't allow government to sell factory. So government find loophole to overcome thes problem.
Biased analysis is shallow
no it isn't, you just have no idea
It's not too biased, saying it as a Russian.
It's a bit shallow, can't argue with that. Still, mostly it's accurate.
@@michaeldunham3385 really you the one who has one idea
@@ebenezernsubuga1352 and you know this because?
Simple, capitalism doesn't work. It's an economic system where a small percentage of the population control the means of production and flow of resources and decides how much or how little the majority get in exchange. Capitalism has always failed (and yes, capitalism has always existed, where it's only gone by different names while all in all retaining the same methodology since the beginning of slavery and feudalism began). As we've seen before in slavery and feudalism, people eventually reach a tipping point and the system collapses due to being so fragile that one slight change causes it to implode and leads to those who have been mistreated and abused by the system finally saying enough and overthrowing it, normally violently after peaceful protests fail. The leaders in turn end up getting executed on mass and in turn causes major problems overall.
Price of oil is the major factor in this story. Oil price was manipulated to bankrupt the USSR and it did. It took a few years for the oil price to recover and when it did so did the Russian economy, just like the Soviet economy was strong when the oil prices were high. The rest is more or less irrelevant. Like analyzing the floor mopping technique to establish the reason for the decline of a household while in fact they just lost their jobs.
The unfortunate natural tendency for humans is to be lazy. Even our developments are for making life easier so that we have more time to do.. I dunno.. watch TH-cam, work from home, go shopping, take another nap, ect... A Keurig allows us to make coffee faster (which was already fast because it's not like anyone is roasting their own coffee and starting a fire to boil water), toasters allow us to make toast without using the oven (another time saving invention), and delivery allows us to buy crap we probably don't need and have it shipped to our door, thus saving us a car trip to the post office or to the store where we bought it. Now some people are frugal with their time and use time-saving devices so they can put in more work, but most just use things like a Keurig because they're too lazy to make a small pot of coffee. The stimulus checks in the US have massively affected businesses (not a big problem now as of writing). People sat at home and collected sometimes more than they were making. Either spent the money shopping online or going out to eat if anywhere was open (yes, it put money into the economy, but less people were working so its benefits were somewhat negated). This is why you cannot enable laziness. You give people money and they will always try to justify why you should keep giving it.
Very good rundown without accepting the BS of the players involved. One major reason certain countries always fail (Russia, Turkey, etc) is a complete lack of enough decent active citizens to protect their prerogatives. The US is finding this out after nearly all the citizens failed to prevent or reverse the legalization of corruption in campaign finance. Unlike their ancestors, they don’t care to learn that nor to fix it. No country gets to be (or stay) a real republic if the citizens cannot handle it. Americans just shrug and go ‘politics is alway crooked’ as if that justifies glorying in it and enabling it. Neither party is anything better than a successful bribery attempt as a result since about 2002.
"capitalism doesn't necessarily mean you have freedom but where you have freedom, you will necessarily have capitalism"
Only because most people can't think of any other way to do things. You could certainly have "freedom" under an alternate system.
Also freedom is really just a saying, its the specifics that matter.
@@RichardBaran Tell that to any communist country from either past or present times.
@@RichardBaran I guess you are right in a sense that we have not come up with a better system, other than capitalism, which would give people personal freedoms. Capitalism is the best system we have for that.
@@dork7546 Who mentioned communism?
01:57 deja vu from COD 4 MW loading screen
Near the end of the video you state "Russia has approached the modernization of the economy as a matter of technology and not as a strategy of openness to international markets and legal security." This is a fine point, but I would like to add that from my study of Russian history (as an amateur, but a very enthusiastic one), this has been the case since the beginning of the "Europeanization'" of the Russian state under Peter the Great, beginning in the late 17th century. Since Peter's time, Russia's interpretation of "Europeanization" (or more broadly, "Westernization") has meant something quite specific to those in command of the Russian state, that being the import of Western technology, science, military capability, and industry, but not Western institutions, such rule of law, more democratic forms of governance, checks on the excessive concentration of power, and so on. I am being somewhat coarse here, so I would like to add that, obviously the various Western institutions exist within a continuum within the Western world itself (and none of them are, by any means perfect), and obviously Russia has itself contributed to science, technology, and industry throughout the ages, as Russia is an incredible nation with a rich history. However, under the time of Peter the Great, it was definitely recognized that they had some significant catching up to do in the realms of economics, technology, military capability, and bureaucratic/administrative control of their subjects.
VisualPolitik needs a tooth whitening sponsor
Visualpolitik seems strangely obsessed with Russia lately
I think we all are to better understand what the hell are they planning with Ukraine.
@@Whodey-AJ nothing?
@@enosunim Bruh 😄
Russia annexed Crimea
Occupied 2 other parts of the country (Luhansk, Donetsk)
Just finished a massive Cyber attack against the country
Had 100k+ triips at the border
Made demands to NATO and USA what Ukraine and ither countries can and can't do
Launched a media campaign that they are going to be invaded
Had a joint "military exercise" with Belarus
Sent fighterplanes to invavade the airspace of several its neighboribg countries
Used gas to destabilize the EU
And you call it nothing? Russia is a bully of a neighbor.
@@Whodey-AJ You mean Russia plans with USA? As nothing of this connected to current Ukraine. Crimea is long gone, no one plans nothing about it. Parts of the country are in the country. NATO is not Ukraine. Military is in Russia. And so one.
Nothing is Nothing.
@@enosunim well, Russia is a shit country to have as a neighbor. Look at Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states etc. Russia is a bully and I hope the free and democratic countries put more sanctions on Russia. Enjoy your Russian mozzarella and your dictator, but please leave the rest of us alone.
Yeltsen carried out primary redistribution needed for starting capitalism. Moving means of production in the hands of very few. Creating a poor working class so they work for very few. This was done in Britain and US at the beginning. It happens Yeltsen did it to extreme and people chosen to give the means of production were incompetent and couldn’t run the companies they were interested in making a quick buck.
you keep saying Rosneft is run by Putin's friend. But it's pretty normal CEO of the largest SEO would be on good terms with national leadership. The real difference is profits of Rosneft belongs to the state, not to a super-rich few.
unlike britain they have heating
Never been to Russia have you
@@michaeldunham3385 yes 6 times and ukraine, nice people
@@davidthomas5990 and yet you apparently are clueless about Russia
@@michaeldunham3385 i have been there you have not, so you know better
@@davidthomas5990 I have not what? I do know better though
Define your terms, what do you mean by "capitalism?" Is capitalism just: "when country good then capitalism, and when country bad, not capitalism?" You can have a capitalist economy while also having autocratic rule. Take Chile in the 1970s, for instance. Their democratically elected, socialist president was forcibly replace in a US backed coup with a brutal dictator. Under the Pinochet dictatorship, the country's economy became more liberal, more capitalist. Also look at China. A country run by a communist party, but also a country that has seen living standards improve dramatically over the last 40 years, with millions being lifted out of poverty. So, is China a capitalist success story?
I define it as property rights.
China used controlled state capitalism because pure maoism was driving it into ruin LMAO
@@JK-oq9cl 😂
@@JK-oq9cl
*Laughs in fuerdai*
The answer is in Atlas Shrugged, there will always be someone who will try to change the world, there will always be assets for the government to take.
5:30 the Russians were getting "POOH-rer and POOH-rer". lol
I had to check the title serval times because I thought you where talking about the USA...this system is broke too because of our own oligarchs....😂
The visualpolitics overlords are really starting to understand that most of us are on the lib-right
Siloviki you can translate as "enforcers" people from force departments.
the question you want to ask is does the USA really have capitalist system?
Yes
i do like the contextual breakdowns this chanel does, along with the charisma. However i would like more than an american centric and obviously very neo liberal bias they have.
Its easy to justify and reinforce a model when constantly comparing to self serving autocracies such as russia, china or Venezuela.
Please bring the chrisma and breakdowns to the faults of capitalism/neo-liberalism in cotext to how the anglo-sphere failes the majority of it people, or at leats acknowledge it.
we are way past 1991/1992, and also past 'the end of history' after all!
Yes
I live in Russia, and honestly hearing about how totally unfree and totalitarian Russia is for the 1000th time is kinda annoying. It's not like this country is a pinnacle of democracy, but in terms of freedom I don't see real difference between let's say Russia and Turkey, or Russia and Ukraine, however it's Russia that always has to be the boogeyman. I've been reading Navalny's blog since 2011 when Medvedev was president, and Navalny has been viciously criticising the government for a decade before they finally imprisoned him, which still sucks.
What really sucks is that Navalvy didn't go to jail when he should. Instead, he was only sent to jail much later when he decided he could do whatever with impunity and overstepped all the boundaries. Russia isn't "a pinnacle of democracy" - perhaps not, but I don't know of any country that was. I've lived many years in the US and can say for sure that Russia is freer in many ways than America.
Russia is of interest because no one cares about Kyrgyzstan nor any of the other former states, as Russia is a credible world power.
russia does have freedom of speech. you can speak, write all sorts of stuff. but you cannot have is freedom of expression.
Basically, you can do all the anti putin propaganda you want but you cannot take action against it.
does it mean that russia is totalitarian???
NO NO NO.
India, bangladesh and other south asian democracies are exactly like that, yet no one calls them authoritarian.
does it matter???
nope, because unless russia gets another great statesman like Comrade Stalin, russia will always lag behind. without stalin, there is no modern russia.
I wish dear stalin lived a decade longer. he would get rid of all the revisionist bastards, and comrade's lenin's creation, the toil of the worker's own state would survive today, giving an array of hope for working class comrades all around the world.
@@eugeniagurevich2234 what
@@robertortiz-wilson1588 yes he's right. In rural russia and siberian towns you can beat up the local mayor or government beaurocrat if he's not doing his work properly.
as a result many mistakes are fixed in a week, whereas in America, you have to wait four years or more.
6:55 man too bad camera phones weren’t a thing back the.
You forgot the quotes around: New
It’s a “New” Russia 🇷🇺
But since The Who performed I’ll put it this way… “New” boss is the same as the old boss.
This whole video is extremely biased and misinterpreting both of the sate of Russian Economy and its root causes...
really? because I say they got it right
Everybody can spew these oneliners David
@@archersbeready6229 Capitalism led a 10x increase of GDP per capita in about 10 years and the recent stagnation is more related to foreign pressure on Russian currency and economy from foreign sanctions than anything else. Russian politics and foreign relations have failed Russia way more than Capitalism did.
I am sure there are underlying problems of corruption but its not like they didn't exist before they adopted a Capitalist model and its absolutely ridiculous to say Capitalism failed Russia.
@@michaeldunham3385 that’s a nice Russian name you have
@@dillonblake6219 your point is?
Next, why Capitalism failed in the USA. When he said "free market like in the United State and Urope, my heart sank." Dude, there is nothing "free" in the States. It's an awful system, where only few benefit from it. At least in Europe they have universal healthcare.
yes. We don't even have property rights in the US
It’s amazing how entitled scumbag equate freedom to choose with freedom from effort
Russia has always been ruled by Tsars. They just use different titles now.