In Focus

“The interests of Russian oligarchs converge with those of Big Tech magnates. Putin and the major oligarchs, both Russian and American, believe themselves to be above the law. Putin’s con-tempt for the law goes so far that he calls into question the very notion of the state, precisely because a state is based on a legal framework and has borders, which he dislikes. Trumpism aims to replace the state with a Putin-style ‘vertical power structure’, in which officials are chosen for their loyalty rather than their compe-tence. The dismantling of the state is accompanied by deregulation, which benefits the big oligarchs who aspire to become masters of financial flows. This is why Kremlin strategists understood very early on what services Western libertarians could provide them,‘ writes Françoise Thom in Le Monde, adding: ’Douguin’s ideas have permeated Putin’s regime and inspired the policy of destroying the United States that has been implemented for the past 20 years. The aim is to inflict on the US the same blows that it allegedly dealt to the USSR under Gorbachev, depriving it of its allies, unilaterally disarming it, ruining its economy