Skiluros

I wouldn’t call it buyer’s remorse.

Let me share a hot take based on my experience of living in the US, Ukraine and Russia (and closely following politics).

There are two factors that are likely driving Roberts’ behaviour:

1. They need an alibi. They need something that can differentiate them from the current oligarch regime in the US. While the US is a pretty conformist country (not saying the most conformist there is, but far more conformist than the popularity of recital of freedom polemics would suggest), you always have the possibility of black swan type events. One example would be Trump and his close associates being taken down in a forceful and public manner. The judicial wing of the oligarchic regime wants a failsafe, something that would allow them to say “we are not oligarch shills, we were just following a conservative judicial philosophy, it is not our fault that it was exploited by bad actors!” They are smart enough to know that if black swan type events do happen, they often take a life of their own and all bets are off. They want an exit strategy.
2. Judicial independence. I don’t mean this in the American sense of the term. I am talking about different power centres within an oligarchic regime. Let’s take russia for example. Even though it’s a highly centralized regime, it still has different power centres. The russian central bank has a modicum of independence. Different cliques in the power structures (and there are many cliques) have their own agenda and capabilities. Regional warlords (Kadyrov being the most well know, but he is not the only one) do have some manner of leverage in the system. The oligarchs, while being banned from politics, do have freedom in how they run their businesses. The one notable example without any leverage is the russian judicial system. They are little more than rubber stamp goons with no independent power. Roberts does not want to turn into Judge Ivan of Govnogorsk. He needs to show the other power centres in America’s oligarch regime that cooperation has a price and that other thugs need to show him respect.

They key issue is to treat oligarchs, their lackeys, their polemicists as individuals that lack empathy and thus lack humanity. Never forget what they are. Only certain types of incentives will work with such individuals.