this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Vladimir Putin’s government has launched an aggressive campaign to nationalize the assets of Konstantin Strukov, one of Russia’s richest men and the owner of the country’s largest gold mining company. The move marks a sharp escalation in the Kremlin’s efforts to extract wealth from within its own elite as the financial toll of the war in Ukraine deepens.

Strukov, whose fortune is estimated at over $3.5 billion, is the founder of Yuzhuralzoloto—a gold empire built over decades with strong ties to the Kremlin. But on July 5, his private jet was grounded by Russian authorities as it prepared to leave for Turkey. His passport was reportedly seized, and the aircraft barred from departing.

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[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 20 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

That's what you get for siding with fascists. People will never learn.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago

The billionaires?

Just like Ancient Rome. The dictator needs cash so he murders the rich people who aren’t his friends and takes their money

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

tax the rich! (slight /s)

what i'm wondering is:

who exactly wanted this war? i.e., i guess it was not a single-person decision. probably a number of oligarchs are behind it because they think they can profit from either the conflict or the outcome of it.

everybody knows that wars are hella expensive. i guess most wars are decided by economic factors, i.e. who can stay solvent longer. what did the oligarchs think would happen to their wealth due to the war?

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

Putin's power draws from his adversaries and foreign policy. He is very weak domestically, mostly at the behest of the oligarchs that run the entire domestic policy show.

Putin muscling around internally usually has to do with the oligarch's stance on foreign policy or the other oligarchs are wanting to eat one of their own.

[–] arc99@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Soon these oligarchs won't even own a window to jump out of

[–] Tja@programming.dev 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The government will provide one, they are generous like that.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 points 21 hours ago

Our window.

[–] KMAMURI@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Tea is cheap.

[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 7 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The Putin giveth and the Putin taketh away.

[–] aphonefriend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 18 hours ago

Minus the giveth part.

[–] doo@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 day ago

What a great way to show the inefficiency of sanctions! /s

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And let this be a lesson to US Billionaires.

[–] Tryenjer@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

If most of them are as smart and lucid as Musk, they won't learn anything.

US billionaires think they can control Trump, and that's very likely true. The worst is yet to come for these rich guys when someone who can truly reverse the power dynamics and thus rule them with an iron fist, as well as the common people, takes the throne.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Trump cannot be controlled, everything is purely transactional with him. The moment he gains more from taking businesses by force, thats what he will do.

Trust and deals have no meaning to him. This is a theif without honor.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

He can be controlled for as long as you have access. He bends to the will of the nearest person like a weed blowing in the wind.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

We should treat him like the threat that he is,an absolute unchecked tyrant.

[–] oppy1984@lemdro.id 38 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Somebody didn't watch Rules for Rulers, keep your elite happy or they'll come together and turn on you.

Fingers crossed.

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You remember those old “In Soviet Russia” backwards jokes? It’s like that, but unironically.

Putin has consolidated power to the point that he doesn’t serve at the behest of Russian billionaires; they only exist due to his whims - and they can cease to exist just as quickly.

‘Blowout’ by Rachel Maddow touches on this, it’s an interesting read/listen.

[–] Nighed@feddit.uk 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

They are refering to a YouTube video I think.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 144 points 1 day ago (16 children)

This is a pretty good example of why I say even millinoaires and billionaires should support a functional democractic society with taxation and regulation and social safety nets. Its the old penny wise and pound foolish. Getting a sliver more and a sliver more and then you lose it all because the rule of law was thrown out long ago. It won't necessarily take that long to. At a certain point it could happen at any time. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Rich people live under the fear of losing it all. As sharing is synonymous with losing to them, no one wants it and everyone is caught in this loop.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm becoming convinced it's an actual mental disease, or at least grossly maladaptive

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's a mental disease in the same sense as drapetomania used to be

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania

Drapetomania was a proposed mental illness that […] hypothesized as the cause of enslaved Americans fleeing captivity.

I could make some guesses, but I'm not sure what you meant by this. What did you mean?

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Some adaptation pretty human mechanism which looks unnatural because it's not us who experience it although given the same circumstances we would do the same

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I see right, yeah, it's the conditions social and material that give rise to the "disorder" whereas if we fix the conditions, it just evaporates. Like abolishing slavery or private property.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 3 points 20 hours ago

Exactly like that 💯

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 65 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This all depends on the people born into wealth being reasonable people.

Most are unhinged psychopaths or nepo babies with too much ego.

Which is why wealth needs to be forcefully redistributed, they won't do it voluntarily.

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[–] bytesonbike@discuss.online 212 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Billionaires siding with dictators thinking they'll be protected?

I genuinely cannot wait until Thiel gets his comeuppance, one way or the other.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 125 points 1 day ago (8 children)

It's funny to me that they think they'll be special, every single time. "They won't throw me out the window for my fortune!"

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[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Let’s make a bingo card out of it. What are our options?

[–] WiseScorpio@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Strukov is about to suffer the effects of defenestration.

[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

is the defenestration supposed to be a metaphor for something? i.e., they took too many risks and "leaned out the window too far and fell over" or sth 🤔

[–] Bravo@eviltoast.org 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

At this point it's just a signature calling card. Like the Wet Bandits leaving all the taps running. Ensuring that everybody knows who did it, without officially claiming responsibility, is intended as a power move to remind everyone that Comrade Major is always listening so toe the line

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 43 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Strukov’s company has denied the incident entirely, stating that he was in Moscow on the day in question and calling the reports “disinformation.” But court documents confirm that a judge had already banned him and his family from leaving the country, and government agencies moved quickly to enforce it.

I will now recommend the Sad Oligarch podcast. Short series on the mysterious deaths of Russian oligarchs in the last few years.

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