Business oligarch

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Business oligarch[1] is almost a synonym of the term "business magnate", borrowed by the English-speaking and western media from post-Soviet parlance to describe the huge, quickly acquired wealth of some businessmen of the Post-Soviet states (mostly Russia and Ukraine) during the privatization in Russia and other post-Soviet states in the 1990s. The history of the business oligarchs in post Soviet Union states is discussed in the following articles:

A typical example of a post-Soviet oligarch entity is the Privat Group - a large Ukraine-based transnational business conglomerate comprising dozens of industrial companies in several markets, controlled by only three stakeholders, and not through the stock exchange.

More generally, an oligarch is an extremely rich and powerful person who is part of an elite which exercises an undemocratic, hidden form of power in order to serve their own interests.[2]


  1. ^ Gun battles and 'extortion' in latest Russian oligarch legal battle, The Guardian, July 9, 2012
  2. ^ "Oligarchy". Encyclopedia Britannica. June 20, 2013.