Bullshit. I was there. I remember. The crony capitalism came from Russia's own spirit. I remember watching the "new style businessmen" in their leather jackets try to intimidate family members into giving up their apartments. All the criminals and thugs that had heretofore operated in the shadows, smuggling and working around the systems, came out into the open and became the new economy. All the brains and talent fled, and as things settled and shook out, a sort of mob-capital hybrid emerged that has to the kleptocratic paradise we now see today.