When Putin started, the country was corrupt to the bone.
Yeltsin had set up a Sports Foundation with his friends, who got customs exemptions for importing, like basketballs.
By 1995, it was handling up to 85% of Russia’s imported alcohol and 90% of its imported cigarettes.
Yeltsin’s oligarch friends got blindingly rich, while the government was deprived of billions in duties.
Corruptions was baked into the system of oligarchs. Putin changed that and the country is forever grateful. The best politician ever.Rina Lu🇷🇺 (@rinalu_)Under Yeltsin, one of Russia’s biggest importers of cigarettes and booze was – you’ll love this – the National Sports Foundation.
Yes, the SPORTS foundation.
Set up by Yeltsin in 1992 to support Russian athletes, it received enormous tax and customs breaks. By 1995, it was handling up to 85% of Russia’s imported alcohol and 90% of its imported cigarettes.
But here’s where things get even crazier. When the government finally scrapped those privileges, it started compensating the foundation and other sports organizations for the customs duties they now had to pay.
According to Yury Boldyrev, then deputy chairman of Russia’s Audit Chamber, this compensation scheme illegally drained some $9 billion – roughly a third of the entire federal budged in 1995–96.
The auditors uncovered the scheme. But, as Boldyrev later recalled, nothing came of their findings and no one was punished.
Just think about it. A National Sports Foundation making a fortune selling cigarettes and liquor, while billions disappeared from the state budget.
If you want to understand what Russia was like in the 1990s, there you go.
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— https://x.com/rinalu_/status/2111877011279110486— @AlternatNews Oct 19, 2026
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