The article The Illusions of Putin's Russia by Anders Aslund is a brilliant distillation of what Russia is today under Putin--a price the Russian people will have to pay for a generation or more to come.
Aslund estimates that around $800 billion of Russia's private wealth is held abroad, and $15-25 billion is added by Putin's inner circle each year. Putin himself, Aslund estimates, has $100-160 billion.
More importantly, the cost to the West is also high. To quote Aslund, "The best defense of the West...is transparency, shining a bright light on this anonymous wealth, which is probably held predominantly in the United States and the United Kingdom [underscore added], the two countries with good rule of law that allow anonymous companies on a large scale and have deep financial markets."
THE ILLUSIONS OF PUTIN'S RUSSIA by Anders Aslund
https://twitter.com/DirkMattheisen/status/1125744966297358336
The article is based on Aslund's new book Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy https://www.amazon.com/Russias-Crony-Capitalism-Economy-Kleptocracy/dp/B07RBJ9RCY/ref=cm_wl_huc_item
