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Conspiracy theories rely on the view that the universe is governed by design, embodying three principles
Nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected
❝Thought it was royal
but all I see is fake kings...
Vladimir Putin has been ruling Russia since 1999. In that time, he has shaped the country into an authoritarian and militaristic society, successfully invading 2 of Russia's neighbouring countries and strengthening ties with Syria and Iran.
Putin is intent on pushing back against the Western world order, and it appears to be working.
In order to understand how 1 man could have such a powerful influence on his country, you must revert back to the chaos and corruption which gripped Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. When the Berlin Wall fell, 40 year old, Vladimir Putin was working as an undercover spy in East Germany for the Soviet security agency, the KGB.
The Soviet Union dissolved into 15 new countries, including the new Russian Federation. In Putin's perspective, Russia had just lost 2 million square miles of territory. He later referred to this as, "the major geopolitical disaster of the century," lamenting that "tens of millions of his compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory."
The new government had to sell nearly 45,000 public businesses such as energy, mining, and communication companies that had been run by the communist regime. The Russian economy was in a freefall, and all of these companies resulted in the hands of a few extremely wealthy individuals, known today as Russia's oligarchs.
At the same time, the new Russian state was experiencing difficulties establishing itself. Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin was wildly unpopular for cooperating with the west. In order to remain in power, Yeltsin leaned on the support of these oligarchs, surrendering an immense amount of political power to them. This graph depicts how inequality worsened after the fall of the Soviet Union.
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The image below pinpoints where Vladimir Putin entered politics. He left the KGB in 1991 and became a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. He uses his position to administer special treatment to friends and allies in the private sector, while helping them structure monopolies and regulating their competitors, causing him to quickly become a favourite among the oligarchs.
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Before long, he assembled a support network of oligarchs, crime bosses, and security officials, mostly former KGB officers. With their help, he rapidly ascended to the upper echelon of the new Russian state. In 1999, president Boris Yeltsin appoints Vladimir Putin, who is still relatively unknown in national politics, to be the prime minister.
