(07-24-2018, 12:50 AM)JagNGeorgia Wrote:

(07-23-2018, 02:59 PM)mikesez Wrote: Hint: the success sought by Russian oligarchs has very little to do with military victories or strong alliances, and everything to do with compiling cash and ferreting it out to as many foreign bank accounts and real estate holdings as possible.  Iran's leaders are in on this.

Oligarch is just another word used to villainize rich people in Russia. Honestly, what's the difference in their rich people and our's?

Hint: the collusion is allegedly between Trump and their government. Are you saying he isn't colluding with the government but instead other rich people?

I think that's an interesting definition of oligarch.  I don't think the word necessarily implies villainy.  It just means that power is not concentrated into one person, but a group of elite people, usually people who also hold a lot of property.
I think that, on paper, Russia and the United States are both Democratic Republics.  I think you'll agree.
I also think that Vladimir Putin has abused and stretched his power, and turned what is theoretically a Republic into a dictatorship by eliminating his political opponents through assassination, jail, and torture.
The oligarchs in Russia *are* villains because they could have stopped it, and in many cases they did not even try.  Putin has always ensured that a lot of the corrupt benefits he could keep for himself flow out to them, and into their foreign bank accounts.
The extremely wealthy people in the US have a lot of influence over the government, but that's not the same thing as control. It's probably not right even call them oligarchs. We still have competitive elections, state governments that pick their own leaders, and an independent judiciary.  But it's not impossible for that to change. It may even be that extremely wealthy people are getting corrupt benefits out of our government and it just hasn't been exposed yet.

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