Anders Åslund points out the "three circles of power" - the state, state-owned corporations, and loyalists’ “private” companies - Vladimir Putin has created since he came to power in 2000. While he has control over every single one of them, as they are based in Russia, he can't control the fourth one, because it involves "offshore tax havens themselves." Most remarkably the majority of ill-gotten wealth that well-heeled Russians tuck away is being managed by shell companies in the UK and the US.

Putin had consolidated power the first four years of his office - taking control of the Russian television and the entire state with its "vertical of power" that centralises all administrations. He embodies the executive power and oversees the legislative and the judicative branches . Then he installed three former KGB generals: Sergei Ivanov as chief of staff; Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the security council; and Alexander Bortnikov, director of the FSB, the successor to the KGB.

Putin had been accused of bankrupting Yukos oil company, seizing its assets and putting its boss, Russia's then richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky behind bars. Other oligarchs eneded up as fugitives living in exile abroad. After having seized "control over the state corporations one by one, beginning with Gazprom in May 2001," Putin appointed cronies to run the state-owned companies - Igor Sechin of Rosneft, Aleksei Miller of Gazprom, and Sergei Chemezov of Rostec.

The circle of Putin's loyalists makes up of people he knew from his home town, St. Petersberg or from his earlier days as KGB officer. The "top four" - Gennady Timchenko, Arkady Rotenberg, Yuri Kovalchuk, and Nikolai Shamalov - are all billionaires. Shamalov, whose father is a friend of Putin, is said to be married to Russia's first daughter. These people and their businesses enjoy all thinkable privileges that are unknown to outsiders.

As Putin relies heavily on loyalty, many of his cronies lack the merits to run large corporations or the business acumen to be successful. But they become wealthy and powerful thanks to their ties to Putin. This malaise fuels resentment among the young and talented, who are ambitious but see little career prospect due to favouritism. What Putin has overseen, is that "in the absence of credible property rights, wealthy Russians, including /his/ own cronies." know that their assets are safer abroad, mostly "within the jurisdictions of the Western governments against which Putin rails."

Of all offshore safe havens, the UK and the US seem to have been the destinations of capital flight from Russia. The author sees it as the "fourth" circle of power Putin can't control. The US state of Delaware is known for the many law firms and financial services that are involved in money laundering by hiding their clients' identities behind shell companies. One of the Russians Donald Trump Jr met in June 2016 at Trump Tower is known to have set up thousands of fake accounts in Delaware on behalf of shady Russians.

The author says "the assets of Putin’s cronies in the US and the European Union are supposed to be frozen" followings sanctions imposed on Russia after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Apparently hardly any account had been found. He calls for action "by initiating comprehensive investigations into the assets of sanctioned people." Unlike European countries that prohibit "the anonymity of beneficiary owners," the US and the UK are said to "hold the vast majority of Russian offshore wealth," because lawyers have been allowed to "transfer anonymous or dirty money" on their clients' behalf.

On August 2 Trump signed - reluctantly - a new bill that imposes a new round of sanctions on Russia and limits his ability to remove them. It also includes "far-reaching investigations into 'senior foreign political figures and oligarchs in the Russian Federation' - including 'spouses, children, parents, and siblings' – and their assets within 180 days."

The author cites the veteran liberal Russian politician Leonid Gozman, who said: "the Russian state is very valuable.” Yet it is also “a very fragile construct that can be destroyed by anything” such as the eradication of corruption and the purge of kleptocrats. "Given the vast stocks of Russian capital that have piled up in New York, London, and elsewhere, the West is ideally positioned to exploit this fragility."