Russian oligarch

The English-speaking and western media have borrowed the term Russian oligarch (a near-synonym of the term "business oligarch" or "business magnate") from Russian parlance to describe the huge, fast-acquired wealth of some businessmen of the former Soviet republics (mostly Russia and Ukraine) during privatization in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Businessmen with great wealth from these countries were commonly labeled (simply) "oligarchs" in Russian - regardless of whether they had real political power, as the term "oligarch" might imply. Analysts have drawn comparisons between the current Russian system of oligarchs and the system of powerful Boyars that emerged in late-Medieval Muscovy.

Post-Soviet Russian oligarchs

The Russian oligarchs are business entrepreneurs who emerged under Mikhail Gorbachev (General Secretary 1985-1991) during his period of market liberalization.

Yeltsinian oligarchs

By the end of the Soviet era in 1991 and during Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, many Russian businessmen imported or smuggled goods such as personal computers and jeans into the country and sold them, often on the black market, for a hefty profit.