yeltsin liked him because he seemed like a loyal me and so they installed him as president he gave up his seat which is almost unheard of so he retired and then elected to become president. but they made a miscalculation the minute he became in power there bulls in the zero bowls were people were lined up been shocked he said you have all done very well and made a lot of money you can keep your money just stay out of my way that was the beginning of the change.

yeltsin game up his seat, something unheard of in 2000, at the millennium. he retired, handing the seat to putin who was then elected and became president. now, the oligarchs had made a miscalculation. putin was not a weak man. the minute he took power he invited the al backers to stalin's old house. a place where there are bullet homes in the walls where people have been lined up and shot. the oligarchs oligarchs were saa table and putin came in front and said, you've all done very well, made a lot of money. you can keep your money, just stay out of my we. and that -- my way. that was the beginning of the change in everything. and some of the oligarchs said, you're leader, and they're all very welty today and still. some said, no, and barasovsy was would one of them and went up against mutt put. he owned a television start and started using is to attack putin. there was a submarine nat sank. all the men were dropped on the bottom of the ocean and died. putin was attacked over that, and putin decided i need to get rid ofship he went on the news and say the o

yeltsin was the president. very ill elm was worried about communism coming back, so his idea and the people around him thought if we can quickly privatize this whole country, if we can actually force capitalism here by behinding away the assets of the country to private people we can create a hedge against communism. it won't be able to come back if it's private. all the businesses are private, communism goes away. so that was his idea. so they basically handed the country away to these very ambitious men who came from nowhere. the main character is a guy named boris, the god father of the kremlin. a mathematician, an outsider, jewish in a very antisemitic society. was not allow owed get a regular job because of hi ethnicity. when capitalism was place inside there he became a car dealer etch start evidence buying cars and he used inflation to make a fortune. he would buy a car, say i'll pay you a year from now. by the time he paid for it was pennies on the dollar and i he would have sold and it he bit a magsive

. >>> joining us from london is a former kremlin and government advisor under the yeltsin administration. he was also a political editor for the russian news agency and an investigative journalist. alexander, thank you for being with us. russia declares it's going to swoop in and save the day in syria and destroy isil but the first thing it does is strike rebel fighters fighting syrian president bashar al assad. you just heard the foreign minister say if it looks like a terrorist, walks like a terrorist, acts like a terrorist, it is a terrorist. is that the strategy, to bomb anything that looks like a terrorist? >> first of all, i think we must understand it's just the first stage of the operation. by some strange coincidence, we've had so much information coming out of everywhere about this particular operation that i sometimes wonder where people get this stuff from. especially i've heard today that some of the footage which was used by western media to show the results of the soviet -- russian air strikes was actually old footage used from the previous time. sew i think this is -- so

like yeltsin i think in a lot of ways. he thought that just by sheer force of his charisma would cruise to reelection. in fact, another deputy on a love of food challenge him in the election and putin was infuriated by this. he thought it was an act of betrayal. he called him a judas. it seemed that he couldn't conceive of the idea that the people could get rid of this man he quite a dork. he was almost a father figure to him. he lost that election fair and square. it was a real vibrant election and with the campaign, american style, you know, ads and so forth. to putin it was a disaster to look at what happens when you let the people decide. >> i think to your specific question, the russians have said very clearly they believe in the geneva process. they believe they should be transitional government formed of all the players, followed by an election. they don't think that assad should be barred from that process, however. they think that if there's an election he should run, or someone who they feel equally confident wil

russia-- in order to go from communism to capitalism-- boris yeltsin, who was the president of russia at the time, decided that the best way to do that was to do what they called mass privatization. to give everything away for free to the people. so the-- the math was pretty-- was-- was-- similarly crazy to the whole polish situation. they-- they issued vouchers to each person. 150 million vouchers. they traded for $20 each. so $20 times 150 million gets you to $3 billion of the vouchers. and that was exchangeable for 30% of all the shares of all russian companies. which meant that the value of the entire russian economy was $10 billion. and so we started to just bet on the vouchers without knowing what the price was going to be. >> you were the most successful hedge fund in the world. probably in the history of the world. >> i was the most successful hedge fund. i had more than $1 billion, which was a huge amount of money-- in any circumstance, but certainly back then, and in russia. >> in the middle of all this thing vladimir putin comes to power. where did your interests align with

like me to forewarn you in order to ensure the authenticity is kept the dialect and phrasings and if yeltsin does not offended by a. please help me to welcome a kid today writer to a "politico" and a recovering politician professor just met. [applause] >> 84 that generous introduction. irish really honored to be here at the clinton's goal the 999th speaker apparently there is someone more important than the debt will be 1,000. [laughter] the first correctional officer that i met had two teeth. i could not understand a word that he said. the manchester federal correctional institution for f.c.i. is deep in the hollow in kentucky and apparently the c.o. had never left. he told me as soon as the gate shut that he sent over to see a nurse, middle-aged and heavyset. height and weight she asked? 5-foot 6 inches 120 and replied. education level? ph.d. i said. share would raise eyebrows at that. the last profession? state senator. we got one is here that think they are jesus christ is a you will fit right and. [laughter] she sent me over to another c.o. standing by a bathroom it did not have paid yo

yeltsin was the president in russia, he was drinking and dining most of his presidency very ill along the way. he was worried about communism coming back. so his idea and the people around him thought if we can quickly privatize this whole country, if we can actually force capitalism here we can create a hedge against communism and won't be able to come back. communism goes away so that was his idea so they basically handed the country away to only to these very ambitious men who came from nowhere. of the main character )-close-paren is the godfather of the kremlin and he was a mathematician from an outsider, jewish and very anti-semitic society he wasn't allowed to go to regular schools i get a regular job because of his ethnicity. when capitalism was placed in there he became a car dealer basically. he started buying up cars and used inflation to make a fortune. he would say all all people a year from now and by the time he paid for it it was pennies on the dollar he would have sold it in the meantime. he had car dealerships over the country. he was a big businessman and got into hi

like yeltsin in a lot of ways. and thought that just by sheer force of his charisma would cruise to re-election and in fact another deputy on the level of putin challenged him in the election and putin was infuriated by this. he thought it was an act of betrayal which is something very important to him. he called him a judist. he couldn't conceive of the idea that the people could get rid of this man he quite adored. it was almost a father figure to him. i think that he lost that election fair and square. it was a real vibrant election. and with a campaign, american style, you know, ads and so fort a forth, to putin it was a disaster when you let the people decide. >> to your specific question, russians believe in the geneva process. they believe there should be transitional government formed of all of the players followed by an election. they don't think that assad should be barred from that process, however. they think that if there's an election, he should run. or someone who they feel equally confident will pro

he does not view gorbachev as a russian hero, doesn't view yeltsin as a russian empire, he views them ceding the empire. >> if you are a great russian nationalist, which is what putin is you would look at any russian leader who ceded authority and control of any part of the russian empire to the west, to be a weak leader. putin's enemy is himself because this is a man, despite all of the public side and the bravado and all that, this is a man who is incredibly weak. and on any given day, a great russian word, means spontaneity, any given day the place can blow and he is sitting on top of that right now. and we in the west look upon him as somebody who was running a huge empire. yes, in terms of territory, but not in terms of strength. >> all right. let me go back to something that was hotly contested in the 2012 debate and republicans are still sort of pushing this talking point, which is putin and russia the greatest existential threat to the united states? >> i don't think so, because my view of russia is not that of a superpower. russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, but that doesn'

. >> i think the breakthrough, honestly, has to be obama and yeltsin -- i mean obama and putin sitting down and reaching an agreement on this i think that's the only way it's going to happen. any other intervention, i don't think, will be effective in the long run. we need a political resolution of this and everything on the table. and we need the major powers to get this back out of the cold war framework. that's my view. >> thank you. >> and i apologize. >> mr. chairman, for the record, before i get or my organization get signed up to propose -- >> no, no. can i say you did not answer. >> i just want to say that none of these points of details really matter. let's take the point of a demilitarized zone. in an area of a country flooded with arms of all kinds is a nice aspiration, but doesn't speak to the detail of the situation on the ground. and i would suggest that the imperative is to look at what a detailed proposal actually is and then measure it against the situation on the ground and the objectives for it. in the end the application of the principles is what's going to matter.

all warm and fuzzy knocking on the door to join but going back to the field that wehe had in the yeltsinyears russiad venusian that we call as minimalist russia to mind its own business in the national security realm to focus on economic development obviously with its climate that may becomeer thboutonducive to agriculture t with the basicevel economic character could decide to emphasize economic development so we describeteresn this as a minimalist russia of e but the third concept and the centerpiece of theout it. article that we call the reagan russia of course, we invoke the notion of ronald reagan but we've been a rash said that is patriotic and the defense industry to spur broader economic growth and does not use of military lot. from our point of view he won the cold war about firing a shot so to the extent pro-military this may or may not be from we imagine that is of reagin gorbachev era one is ready to lash out the other onehat will excite -- exercise as much as possible. the last two concepts may invoke more the way he is to these days. cliff thank you for being here today and

but going back to the feelings we sometimes had in the yeltsin years, for example. and as there is the notion of what we call a minimalist russia, this is the russia that decides to might its own business in the national security realm and focus primarily on economic development. obviously russia, with its huge landmass and resources, northerly climate, which may actually become more conducive to agriculture as the planet warms, and many other things about basic economic character, it could in theory decide to exercise economic development, which of course would be desirable in many ways. we describe this russia as a minimalist russia, not interested in throwing its weight around the national security realm. the third concept, and the centerpiece of the article and i'm sure one that cliff will talk about a little as he develops these frameworks in more detail, we call it a reaganoff russia. we are trying to develop the notion of reagan, but let me get a little more specific before cliff gets into the concept more in detail. we mean russia that is patriotic, the defe

that was boris yeltsin, now we're dealing with vladimir putin.s is a larger problem for the west. guy: and 20 seconds, the targeting is interesting. ryan: the wall street journal reporting that u.s. officials are saying he is going after everybody but the islamic state, including cia funded militants fighting isis. anna: ryan chilcote with the increasingly complicated picture. guy: after the break, we look at the challenges facing prime minister shinzo o. ♪ guy: six: 43 in london. these are the stories you know this morning. factoryina's official gauge stabilize after a three-year low. the managing index kind of 49.8 in september. it was 49.7 in august. futures gained on the news. the exchanges are closed for holiday. guy: the twitter board is set to name jack dorsey as its permanent ceo. the company shares gained more than 5% on the reports. announcement could come as early as today. anna: confidence is falling in japan. latest survey shows the index for large manufacturing fell to 12 in september from 15 in june. adding to the bad news, concern

yeltsin. manus: in my the bringing in with a cold and sitting down with obama.ut this is a man who was to flexes political and military muscle. very briefly, other concerns about the potential targets that russia hit yesterday? ryan: yes, they're ours. those concerns were there before russia acted and they have been confirmed in many ways. russia says it was going after islamic state with his military campaign yesterday. france, the united states safe no, you are going after all of the opponents of assad in syria except for islamic state. "the wall street journal reporting in fact, they hit cia funded militants in syria. manus: i know you will stay on top of the story. ryan chilcote the latest from syria. in the u.s. twitter shares a after reports the company is set to appoint cofounder jack dorsey back as the permanent ceo. can he help resuscitate confidence in the social media network? caroline hyde has been taking a look. caroline: is jack back? is jack the man who, of course, helped found the company, sent the first ever tweet who was ousted in 2008 and seve

. >> i think the breakthrough, honestly, has to be obama and yeltsin -- i mean obama and putin sitting down and reaching an agreement on this i think that's the only way it's going to happen. any other intervention, i don't think, will be effective in the long run. we need a political resolution of this and everything on the table. and we need the major powers to get this back out of the cold war framework. that's my view. >> thank you. >> and i apologize. >> mr. chairman, for the record, before i get or my organization get signed up to propose -- >> no, no. can i say you did not answer. >> i just want to say that none of these points of details really matter. let's take the point of a demilitarized zone. in an area of a country flooded with arms of all kinds is a nice aspiration, but doesn't speak to the detail of the situation on the ground. and i would suggest that the imperative is to look at what a detailed proposal actually is and then measure it against the situation on the ground and the objectives for it. in the end the application of the principles is what's going to matter.