Hidden Forces

In Episode 33 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Bill Browder about how his wealth was plundered by Russian oligarchs and placed in the hands of Vladimir Putin. This is the story of Bill Browder and the end of glasnost. It stands as a microcosm of how the USSR attempted, and failed, to reform itself. However, in order to truly tell the tale, we must begin with another man: Mikhail Gorbachev. Mikhail Gorbachev came to the stage at the end of the 1980s with a policy of glasnost, which can best be translated and explained in English as “openness.” Practically speaking, the policy was focused on ending the nation’s endemic corruption by making the government transparent. Or at least, by making the government a little more transparent. Gorbachev hoped that such a policy would thwart the schemes of the bureaucrats who enjoyed complete control of the economy and redistribute power more evenly. Unlike his predecessors, Gorbachev also had a far stronger focus on noninterference. Ultimately, these policies l