The Russian “oligarchs” are business entrepreneurs who emerged under Mikhail Gorbachev as a result of the Privatization program when formerly State-owned enterprises were auctioned off to private purchasers.  The term “oligarch” reflects the huge, fast-acquired wealth of some businessmen of the former Soviet Union in 1990s.  While there are a dozen or so of these oligarchs, this posting will focus on just two of them, and how their careers were once so close and now so very different.  Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich were once friendly business partners who were extremely successful, and now Berezovsky is a political refugee and Abramovich a wealthy celebrity.  Born into two separate worlds, these two became major business players following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and now inhabit separate spheres. Read more →