By Paul Wallis
EDITOR AT LARGE
DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 11, 2026
People march during a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed an American woman
January 11, 2026
People march during a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed an American woman
- Copyright AFP Serhii Okunev
The current desiccation of America has a direct analogy in the Russia of the 1990s. The Soviet Union fell apart largely due to mismanagement and extreme corruption. It went ingloriously broke. Public assets were privatized in the form of stocks, and those stocks were instantly snatched up by big money. Russians had to sell their stocks to make ends meet as black markets exploded and prices skyrocketed to insane levels.
The Russian middle class was never as prevalent as the American middle class, but the result was an upper class with impregnable political protection. A police state effectively became a criminal state. The Bratva, aka the Russian Mafia, appeared in swarms.
This almost total vaporization of middle-class assets effectively funded the process of redesigning Russia into its current form. It gave huge cash cows to private interests. The Russian people went through a very bad time, even by their historical standards.
People did it very tough. They were selling heirlooms or whatever got them though. There was a drug called Krokodil, which produced some of the most bizarre effects of any known drug, including “flesh-eating” effects. You can’t see the more gruesome effects on safe search, but they included literal holes in people’s limbs.
This absolute disintegration of Russian society was barely reported in the West. In Russia, the Russians seem to have soon longed for the good old police state. Nothing like a gulag to make you feel nostalgic.
The less idealistic Russians did what most people do in tough times. They went for money and had to deal with the guys with the guns and gangs. The result is modern Russia, a completely opaque state ruled entirely and thuggishly entirely from the top down.
The very big money went upwards and the oppression went downwards. The laws favoured the top and too bad about anyone else. There was no protection from the new Russia. The news also came from the top down, a sort of trickle-down oppression.
OK. America and Russia were hardly identical twins at any point in their histories. The American middle class had far more assets than Russia as a nation. America, for all its faults, also had a working democracy, something Russia has never had.
The analogy holds up in one undeniable form. In the US, money is and always has been an insider’s game. Connections matter. This economic model is basically the same thing,
The US Robber Barons have simply been replaced by hedge funds, corporate deals, political and other criminals with publicists, and a lot of money laundering. The political process is all about money.
If who does what is different in America compared to who does what in Russia, it’s the exact same things being done. It’s an unmistakable pattern, and it works.
The only real difference is in definitions. In Russia, “free enterprise” is whatever the government says it is. In the US, it’s whatever the big money says it is. What a coincidence. There’s a wholesome supply of piggish goons and executive excrement to enforce it.
Meanwhile, the US has gone backward and downward fast. The expression “Third World America” used to be an almost-joke. Now, it’s inexcusably normal. America has been turned into a Russified version of hell. Not a lot of “greatness” to be seen. The distribution of US wealth is now far beyond obscene.
Libertarians and conservatives should note that this is also the exact diametric opposite of the US in its heyday. So should economists who are supposed to be able to read and write.
The pitiful litany of America’s disasters doesn’t need reciting. It needs fixing.
This is the antithesis of America.
________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
The current desiccation of America has a direct analogy in the Russia of the 1990s. The Soviet Union fell apart largely due to mismanagement and extreme corruption. It went ingloriously broke. Public assets were privatized in the form of stocks, and those stocks were instantly snatched up by big money. Russians had to sell their stocks to make ends meet as black markets exploded and prices skyrocketed to insane levels.
The Russian middle class was never as prevalent as the American middle class, but the result was an upper class with impregnable political protection. A police state effectively became a criminal state. The Bratva, aka the Russian Mafia, appeared in swarms.
This almost total vaporization of middle-class assets effectively funded the process of redesigning Russia into its current form. It gave huge cash cows to private interests. The Russian people went through a very bad time, even by their historical standards.
People did it very tough. They were selling heirlooms or whatever got them though. There was a drug called Krokodil, which produced some of the most bizarre effects of any known drug, including “flesh-eating” effects. You can’t see the more gruesome effects on safe search, but they included literal holes in people’s limbs.
This absolute disintegration of Russian society was barely reported in the West. In Russia, the Russians seem to have soon longed for the good old police state. Nothing like a gulag to make you feel nostalgic.
The less idealistic Russians did what most people do in tough times. They went for money and had to deal with the guys with the guns and gangs. The result is modern Russia, a completely opaque state ruled entirely and thuggishly entirely from the top down.
The very big money went upwards and the oppression went downwards. The laws favoured the top and too bad about anyone else. There was no protection from the new Russia. The news also came from the top down, a sort of trickle-down oppression.
OK. America and Russia were hardly identical twins at any point in their histories. The American middle class had far more assets than Russia as a nation. America, for all its faults, also had a working democracy, something Russia has never had.
The analogy holds up in one undeniable form. In the US, money is and always has been an insider’s game. Connections matter. This economic model is basically the same thing,
The US Robber Barons have simply been replaced by hedge funds, corporate deals, political and other criminals with publicists, and a lot of money laundering. The political process is all about money.
If who does what is different in America compared to who does what in Russia, it’s the exact same things being done. It’s an unmistakable pattern, and it works.
The only real difference is in definitions. In Russia, “free enterprise” is whatever the government says it is. In the US, it’s whatever the big money says it is. What a coincidence. There’s a wholesome supply of piggish goons and executive excrement to enforce it.
Meanwhile, the US has gone backward and downward fast. The expression “Third World America” used to be an almost-joke. Now, it’s inexcusably normal. America has been turned into a Russified version of hell. Not a lot of “greatness” to be seen. The distribution of US wealth is now far beyond obscene.
Libertarians and conservatives should note that this is also the exact diametric opposite of the US in its heyday. So should economists who are supposed to be able to read and write.
The pitiful litany of America’s disasters doesn’t need reciting. It needs fixing.
This is the antithesis of America.
________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
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