In today’s episode, Jason Hartman is joined by Ben Mezrich. He is the author of best-selling books: Bringing Down The House, The Accidental Billionaires, and Once Upon a Time in Russia. Ben and Jason talk about the misconceptions about Putin, how Putin came into power, and why Russians and some Ukrainians love him.
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Welcome to the creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You’re about to learn a new slant on investing some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world’s most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine self made multi millionaire who’s actually been there and done it. He’s a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who’s owned properties in 11, states had hundreds of tenants and been involved in 1000s of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to your financial independence day, you really can do it. And now here’s your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.
Jason Hartman 1:04
Welcome to the creating wealth show, this is your host Jason Hartman, Episode Number 547 547. Thank you so much for joining me today. And you know, I’m excited today, why am I excited? Well, you know, I’m always excited about various things. And I don’t know, maybe a little discouraged about others. But we have been working on a totally new type of event. It just feels like things were getting a little boring, you know, and we wanted to keep all of you listeners interested in engaged and you know, you’ve been coming to our creating wealth in today’s economy event. For years now, you’ve been coming to our property tours for years, you’ve been coming to our meet the Masters event for years. three basic events that we do many, many times. Now, of course, property tours, they’re in different markets. So there’s a little variety there. But what about something totally new, totally different? Well, here it is, you know, it is Jay H, you live? Yes. Jason Hartman University live. And many of you are members of our members section, we kind of refer to it that way. But it’s really Jason Hartman University. And we’re going to be changing that around improving it quite a bit and raising the price, because we’re going to add a lot of value to that program. And one of the things we’re going to do is a live event. So just under its current pricing, many of your members so don’t even think about that. You get a big discount on this event, and it’s going to be really exciting. And it’s coming up in San Diego. Yes. My new hometown, coming up at the end of August. What is that the last weekend of August. That’s the 29th and 30th. It’s a Saturday and Sunday a weekend event. And it’s called Jason Hartman University live, JHU live. So here’s the scoop on that. We’re gonna get to our guest today, by the way, that is Ben Mezrich, who is the author of a book entitled dangerous Putin. And we’re going to talk about good old Vladimir, the, you know, the guy over in Russia, the macho guy who would kick Obama’s but if they were in a fight? Well, anyway, he’s got some really interesting insights into Russia and the way they’re acting and what that means to us on the world stage, what it means to the economy. Of course, it always has a tie in for investors. So we’ll get to that in a moment. But first, let me tell you about this new event because I’m just so excited about it. And I hope you will join us. So it’s in San Diego in Mission Valley, end of August. And here is the scoop on it. Jason Hartman University live school is back in session, but it’s not the school you’ve been thinking about. This isn’t grade school, high school or even college. It’s much better it’s Jason Hartman University live jgu live is where I bring together investors and local market specialists only a couple of them okay, this is not meet the masters. It’s a different kind of event. Okay, for in depth training on the details of property analysis, acquisition, management and wealth creation. By Sunday afternoon, students will leave equipped to conduct their own research and build their own portfolio of properties to achieve their financial independence state.
Here’s what you’ll learn market analysis how to evaluate the three basic types of markets linear, cyclical, and hybrid. Learn how to target investments for cash flow versus appreciation, how to calculate regression to replacement costs and considerations related to in migration out migration and landlord friendliness. unfriendliness as at work, this will empower you to select the best investment markets. Based on solid research, you’ll learn about property analysis, you’ll learn how to calculate LTI ratios or land to improvement ratios. Of course, RV ratios, those are really simple, but we’re gonna do an exercise on that, and how to calculate overall ROI or return on investment, capitalization rates, cash on cash return and debt coverage ratios. So we’re gonna actually do calculations, we’re gonna go over formulas and pass out worksheets for you, so that you feel confident you can do all this stuff on your own. Remember, you are your own best advisor, we want you to be your own best advisor to empower you. Many exercises will be done with templates and interactive worksheets. So you take the concepts from theory into reality. Now, what else? Okay, property acquisition, walk through the steps on my property acquisition checklist. Yes, we’ve Horst around with checklists over the years, but we’re finally going to make one official, and you can really, really use this to help you be better, you know, going through that step by step and how to apply it to your portfolio, you’ll come away with a copy of the checklist, we’re also going to talk about managing your manager versus self management, long term success as a real estate investor, of course, it will involve working with the right team, managing those relationships, that’s a paramount importance. Learn how to manage your property managers, when to make a change, when to stay the course, self management, that’s a good option for many investors who want to increase profits, and they have greater control and involvement in their portfolio. So we will take a close look at self management as well. And then property portfolio planning, you know, achieving financial independence, of course, it’s a matter of building a portfolio of properties that can generate enough cash flow to meet your needs and the needs of your family. This is what Kiyosaki talks about when he talks about getting out of the rat race, right? It’s when your passive income. And you know, just a little note on that, I don’t believe anything is completely passive. This is not nothing is nothing is completely passive, okay. But it’s when that basic semi passive income exceeds your expenses exceeds your needs, okay? When the weekend is over, you’ll come away with the ability to analyze markets, analyze properties, acquire properties, manage your manager, build your financial independence portfolio, with these tools in your arsenal, you can be confident on your journey for financial independence. Okay, so this event is designed to help you become the 1% of investors who really understand how to do real estate at a higher level. And we’ve got some great early bird pricing for you. It only lasts until August 1, and that is only $197. If you’re a member of Jason Hartman University, Jq, you get 30% off any of these prices after August 1, it goes to 297. And this is per person, of course. So if it’s you and another person, you got to register both, and then after August 15 397. And this is, of course, free to venture Alliance members. So if you’re a member of the venture lions mastermind, pretty much all of our events are free or very, very reduced. So go to Jason hartman.com. Register, we look forward to seeing you there.
And the other thing I’m really excited about this event is you know, we could do this event in one day, we normally do the creating wealth bootcamp. In one day, when we did that Memphis property tour, we kind of split it over two days, which was a unique way to approach it. But you know what, when we do that, it’s just too rushed. This is more of a workshop style event, where you’re going to be actually doing some of this yourself. You know, that old saying, I can’t remember what it is. But you know, it goes something like, if I hear it, I’ll remember a little bit of it. If I do it, I’ll really internalize it. That’s not the saying I totally butchered that. But you get the idea. There is a say, what the heck is the saying I can’t remember. Anyway, we look forward to seeing you there because it’s gonna be a great event. And please join us in San Diego at the end of August. It’s just going to be awesome. register at Jason hartman.com for j or Jason Hartman University live. Look forward to seeing you there. Oh, wait. One more thing, there’s always one more thing you know me off on a tangent, not really. But that event I just told you about Jay Chou live. If you go to iTunes and write a review for us on the podcast, we will give you the 30% discount. Okay, so just like being a JHU member, you’ll get the discount, all you have to do is write a review, and then email me Actually, I’ll set up a new email address for this because that might drive me crazy. So let’s call it reviews. Okay, it’ll be reviews at invest with Jason calm, reviews at invest with Jason calm, just take a screenshot of your review, send it over to me, and we will send you back a promo code for 30% off the event.
Okay, before we get to our guest, I just want to talk to you about one more thing. And that is cost of living, you know how we talk about inflation and do step destruction. And over the last year or two, inflation has been pretty tame. So it’s kind of hard to see this stuff, but it’s amazing what happens over time. So 1970, remember, only one year before we went off the gold standard, and inflation went crazy. A new house costs $23,000 23,004 50. The average income was 90 $400 per year, a new car was 3400 bucks, minimum wage was $2.10 per hour, a movie ticket was $1 55. Gasoline was 36 cents per gallon. a postage stamp first class was six cents. Sugar was 39 cents for five pounds. Milk was 62 cents a gallon, coffee was $1 90 a pound. And eggs were 59 cents a dozen. And a loaf of bread was 25 cents. So when we think about inflation, and do stat destruction and benefiting from inflation in our investments, just keep that in perspective. Time passes quickly, folks, a lot of you listening, I’m sure you remember 1970 it wasn’t really that long ago in the grand scheme of things. But in 1990, and 2000, all those things were a lot less than they are today. That’s a really important issue for our investments. Now when I posted this in one of our private groups, our investment counselor Sarah said she took her daughter to Baskin Robbins, with her friends yesterday, in order to a large ice cream shake. Guess how much it was $8.50 She said she was really shocked. That was a real eye opener. So inflation is real. And it really really benefits us as investors. Okay, let’s get to our guests, Ben Mezrich. Let’s talk about Russia. Let’s talk about a little bit about geopolitics, what this means to us as investors, and the importance of really understanding what’s going on on the world stage. Because it does affect us as investors. If we’ve got any money in the stock market, it really affects us there in real estate to a lesser degree, but just for the overall economic picture. Very, very important stuff. All right. Here’s our guests. Be sure to go to Jason hartman.com. Register for upcoming j h you live event. And we look forward to seeing you there. Here’s Ben.
It’s my pleasure to welcome Ben Mezrich to the show he is behind some big things that you have certainly heard of and probably seen or read. He’s the author of the number one best selling books bringing down the house, the inside story of six MIT students who took Vegas for millions. And that was of course turned into a Kevin Spacey film entitled 21. Also The Accidental Billionaires the founding of Facebook A Tale of sex, money, genius, and betrayal, which was turned into the academy award winning film, The Social Network. His latest work is once upon a time in Russia, the rise of the oligarchs, the story of ambition, wealth, betrayal and murder, which has been optioned by Warner Brothers. So we’ll probably see a film about that too. Ben, welcome. How are you?
Ben Mezrich 14:29
I’m great. Thanks so much.
Jason Hartman 14:30
It’s good to have you on the show. And where are you located?
Ben Mezrich 14:33
I’m in Boston. Boston, Massachusetts.
Jason Hartman 14:34
Fantastic. Well, gosh, congratulations. You’ve had some tremendous success. Just out of curiosity. What are maybe a couple of things you attribute that to? You know, are you an awesome writer? Do you know the right people? Are you a really hard worker? What’s your thing?
Ben Mezrich 14:52
I mean, I’ve been very fortunate with the stories that have sort of come to me along along the years, starting with the MIT kids, finding me basically Telling me their story. And then the social network kind of came out of a random email from a Harvard kid who said, my best friend founded Facebook, and no one’s ever heard of him. And so both those stories just came by accident to me. But overall, you know, I’m, I’m always writing, I’ve written 17 books. And I’m always looking for great stories. And so I’ve just been fortunate to find a few that people were interested in.
Jason Hartman 15:13
Well, fantastic. A lot of people are interested in all of these topics. And, again, I’d love to extend the invitation to have you back on the show someday to talk about some of your other books. I mean, you’ve written about some interesting stuff in the oil industry, Wall Street, etc. So we’re not gonna have time to talk about all of that today, obviously, but you know, Vladimir Putin, he’s a badass, isn’t he? I mean, he, he’s making a lot of headlines and get a little scary.
Ben Mezrich 15:46
Yeah, he’s, he’s definitely an interesting character. And when you look back at where he came from, I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about Putin. People underestimate him all the time. But he’s certainly one of the most powerful leaders that the world has ever seen. And at the moment, he definitely is causing a lot of headaches for the rest of the world.
Jason Hartman 16:06
Yeah, well, so your book really chronicles the rise of Putin, like how Putin was made, right? Tell it, tell us about that.
Ben Mezrich 16:16
Sure. So the book, once upon a time in Russia is really about the oligarchs who, who rose to extreme wealth and power during the 90s. And up until today, but in the process, they actually created Putin, really by mistake. At one point in time, seven men in Russia owned 50% of Russia’s GDP. So these were really a group of the wealthiest men in the world. And they were under Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin was president, but really, they were running the Kremlin. And when Yeltsin was getting sick and dying, these oligarchs decided they needed to install somebody who would be under their control, they were looking for a low level, agent, a cog, someone that they could create as a president, and they found Vladimir Putin, Putin with this low level, KGB agent working for the mayor of St. Petersburg. And he was essentially placed into the presidency by these oligarchs. And then everything kind of changed very quickly when they realized what they had done. So in other In other words, they’ve got to be thinking now or maybe you know, what, from a long time ago that Putin was really a mistake, right? He wasn’t that he wasn’t the Yes, man that would do their bidding, right? He wasn’t who they thought he was. Basically, once he took power. A few weeks later, he invited all of the oligarchs to Stalin old house. And, you know, this is a place where you can see the bullet holes in the walls and stuff. And he sat the oligarchs down at a table, and he said, you know, you’ve all made a lot of money, you’ve all done very well, you can keep your money, but from here on out, stay out of my way. And the oligarchs who listened to him and stayed out of his way are still wealthy today. And the ones who went up against him are either dead or an exile. So you know, they definitely miscalculated. And, and that’s essentially what my story is about. Yeah. I mean, you know, you’re basically saying that Putin had them either destroyed in terms of their wealth or executed? No, he put out hits on them. Well, I mean, it was the sort of thing where you, you were either within his favor, or you were not. And if you were not in Putin’s favor, it was very difficult to do business in Russia, and many of them were on the run. The story itself that I wrote is really about this guy, Boris Berezovsky, who is known as the godfather of the Kremlin, he was really the most famous of the oligarchies in the 90s. He was a former mathematician and car salesman, who built this massive multi billion dollar Empire. And once Putin took power, he decided to go up against Putin. He did not want Putin to stay in power. And he eventually had to had to, had to run for his life and, and didn’t really didn’t make it very far.
Jason Hartman 18:47
I mean, to me was not exactly some docile creature. I mean, he’s a KGB man, right? He had a pretty what macho history, for lack of a better word.
Ben Mezrich 18:57
Well, he was a judo expert, and a KGB man, but he wasn’t the high powered, he was working, you know, as an assistant to the mayor of St. Petersburg, he had done some work in East Germany. But overall, he was not a high level KGB agent. When they found him, they actually placed him as the head of the FSB, which was the, you know, what the KGB can. And that was his first job in the yeltsin government. And then he went from there to Prime Minister and from there to President. So with this kind of meteoric rise, once they’d found him and decided that he was the guy they wanted, but you know, before that he was an agent, but he wasn’t, you know, somebody that you know, anybody had heard of,
Jason Hartman 19:35
okay. Was he wealthy before? Or did he gain all his wealth by, you know, stealing from the population the way most of them do?
Ben Mezrich 19:43
He wasn’t lucky. He was just, you know, regular KGB agent. Whether you know what he’s worth today, nobody really knows for sure. But it’s a lot.
Jason Hartman 19:52
I mean, there’s been a lot of speculation about that.
Ben Mezrich 19:54
But really what happened was once he took control of the country, basically the oligarchs became his cash. registers. So the oligarchs who stayed within his favor people that, you know, he could count on to pay for certain things. But you know, when he took power, part of what he was trying to do, was to save the country from the oligarchs who were looting it. Under yeltsin, basically, most of the resources of the country had been handed off to this group of men who, who really came from nowhere, all of the oligarchy essentially came from nowhere. And they were given, you know, the oil company, the aluminum company, the steel company, in this privatization scheme, which was to quickly privatized the country, after sort of communism fell. And so when Putin took power, the Russian people were essentially getting screwed left and right. And part of what Putin was trying to do was to repatriate the money.
Jason Hartman 20:47
Yeah, interesting. Okay, so should we be scared of Putin? Or is this a lot of, you know, we in the West, you know, in the US? Or is this just a lot of sort of saber rattling?
Ben Mezrich 20:58
It’s a mixture of things. I mean, you have to remember a lot of what Putin does is he does for his own country, he does, for how he appears in front of his own people, and they love you know, the Russian people love Putin, he’s he’s incredibly popular. He’s incredibly strong leader, pro Russia, and the people there love that. And so a lot of it is for show, but at the same time, he’s not someone that you can ignore. And I think, you know, people think that we can get him into a corner or we can, you know, use economic means to sort of force him out. But the reality is, he’s just becoming more and more popular and more and more entrenched. So I think you need to find a way to work with him. And his country is not a rich country, compared to the United States. But it is sort of an important country. And I think the goal has to be to work with him in a way rather than to continue to try and push him into a corner.
Jason Hartman 21:50
What do you make of his aggressive moves in Georgia and Ukraine? It’s kind of interesting, because I remember I was in Ukraine. You know, I remember talking, I was having tea in the afternoon with this very knowledgeable, 21 year old girl. And she she was saying how much she liked. Now, this was, you know, several years ago, maybe seven years ago, I would say, but, you know, I can’t imagine anyone in the Ukraine is gonna say that now too much?
Ben Mezrich 22:18
Well, I mean, there is a Russian population there and a very pro Russian population, part of Ukraine, it’s split. I think people do underestimate how popular Putin is, in general. When you look at what’s going on in the country, everyone looks to Putin as their Savior, and the West is demonized. The West is the ones causing all the problems. I think that Ukraine, you know, is part of Putin’s goal of making a strong Russia of making everything that’s Russia, in Russia. And so I think it’s a more complicated question. It’s not an invasion as much as it is. The goal is to sort of make Russia strong again, Putin has said numerous times that one of the great mistakes of our century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. So he’s not, you know, he’s not, he is not someone that wants to see things continue the way they are, he wants Russia to be bigger and stronger. Which is, you know, something that most Russian people agree with. When I talk to people, they’re, they’re very much in favor of this. So, you know, it’s it’s a, it’s a very different opinion of him than we have here.
Jason Hartman 23:23
Interesting. Okay. So he’s still that popular. I mean, given all the problems Russian citizens encounter every day. Well, you know, Russian citizens have had have had it bad forever.
Ben Mezrich 23:34
I mean, Russians have had it bad under the Czar’s. They had a bad under Stalin with a breadlines, and they had it bad under the privatization scheme of yeltsin. And they have it bad now. So the average Russian isn’t, you know, suddenly in a bad place, they’ve always been in a bad place. So you know, it’s not looking to Putin to blame. And you know, the opposition, there is opposition to him, but it’s not huge. It’s not one of these Arab Spring situations. It’s more a small group of people oppose him.
Jason Hartman 24:02
What else do you want to tell us about the book and you know about how this rise to power occurred?
Ben Mezrich 24:07
Well, this book started off actually with a phone call from Brett Ratner. The director, bread has done movies like rush hour, he did. Hercules last year, he did Tower Heist, and he’s someone I’ve worked with in the past. He called me up and said, You know, I want you to come to London and meet some people. They want to tell you a story. So I flew to London. And that’s when I met, you know, some of these Russian people, these oligarchs and I was kind of blown away by the story. I didn’t immediately want to do it. I was kind of reluctant at first, I was a little nervous about the topic. But as I got to hear it, it just is very Shakespearean drama about these two men, Boris Berezovsky, who was the older kind of oligarchy, the godfather of the Kremlin, and then his young protege was Roman Abramovich. Roman Abramovich is in London now and Chelsea soccer club people know him there. But he was this 26 year old dashing young toy sale. from Siberia, he was making rubber ducks and things like that. And he met bears offski on a yacht in the Caribbean and pitched this idea of creating an oil company. And together, they ended up building the second largest oil company in Russia, which ended up being worth many $13 billion. But along the way, there were a lot of bile bodies piled up and eventually their relationship frayed and fell apart. But it was just this incredible story that I couldn’t turn away from.
Jason Hartman 25:29
Yeah, very interesting. It really is an interesting story. I mean, do you think there will there will be a movie on this topic?
Ben Mezrich 25:33
Yeah, we’re doing a movie with Warner’s Warner studio is making the movie. And Ratner is producing it. And we’re in the process now of funding the screenwriter to write the screenplay. Oh, okay.
Jason Hartman 25:43
So it is a done deal. Because it said in your in your intro, when I introduce you said option.
Ben Mezrich 25:48
Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s picked up as a movie, we sold the movie before we actually sold the book. So it’s definitely in the process now.
Jason Hartman 25:57
Yeah, fantastic. Good, good stuff. Well, what do you think this means, given the way Putin is and so forth? What does it mean, to the rest of the world? I mean, are we gonna see him in power for a long time? Is he gonna make more aggressive moves, or at least what we consider to be aggressive?
Ben Mezrich 26:12
You know, I think we will see him in power for a long time. I don’t see Putin going anywhere.
Jason Hartman 26:18
You know, how old is he about 62 or something?
Ben Mezrich 26:20
Yeah, something like that. But he’s in great shape. He’s, you know, he’ll advocate when he wants to advocate, I don’t believe it’s going to be the sort of thing where he’s thrown out, I think he’ll leave when he’s done. But, you know, I don’t know whether he’s going to continue an aggressive route, or whether he’s going to be more social with the rest of the world. That’s something that only Putin knows he’s one of these people, that’s very hard to second guess, and very hard to know what he’s going to do. But I think he’ll he’ll eventually find a way to sort of build the country that he wants to build without, you know, getting the rest of the world up against him, because I think his goal is a strong Russia and not a weak Russia, and however he can get there. What else should we know?
Jason Hartman 26:59
You know, just in general, in general, I don’t I don’t I don’t know enough about the topic, maybe to ask you all the questions.
Ben Mezrich 27:05
I mean, I think it’s a fun, incredible story. It’s a story that definitely resonates today. I mean, you see what, all this Russian money coming out of Russia, all the oligarchs have built these incredible fortunes. And you see real estate in places like London and New York and Miami going crazy, because of a lot of this Russian oligarch money, because, you know, their country is unstable, and they have all this money. So they put it in stable places, which is making it very hard for average people to buy apartments anyway. But, but it’s all you know, it’s even though the story begins in the 90s. It’s a very kind of current story when you look at what’s going on.
Jason Hartman 27:41
I mean, you see that, you know, he he claims Putin, that, you know, the collapse of the Soviet Union was this terrible thing. But, I mean, it’s which way is Russia moving? Are they becoming more or less capitalist?
Ben Mezrich 27:51
You know, it’s capitalist, it’s a capitalist country, and they’re finding their footing. And they’re the problem with it is, is that it’s, it’s this crony capitalism, it says capitalism that you need to be in favor with the government to continue your business and the business is your business can be shut down by the government at any point. So it’s capitalist in day to day. But overarching, you need something called a Krishna roof. That’s something that’s in my book, but it’s this Russian word, that means a roof that protects you. And it actually comes dates back to the mob, the mob the mafia, where you would need a protector. Right now Putin is the ultimate roof and everyone has to be underneath that roof. When I wrote the story takes place Paris offski has has a yeltsin as his roof, and Abramovich has bears off, he has his roof. And so it’s this idea that you’re a capitalist society, but you need to protect her at the same time, which they haven’t quite gotten away from yet.
Jason Hartman 28:50
Okay, so the capitalist with a protector? What is it? It’s really crony capitalist? I mean, you know, you could almost argue that it’s sort of fascist in some way, because you’ve got this, you know, massively rich class that’s in bed with a government. And unfortunately, we’re seeing the US get more and more this way every day, which is very scary. But is Russia going to really have a middle class in any significant way?
Ben Mezrich 29:14
I mean, that’s a good question. You know, and it’s funny, what you just mentioned, whenever I talk to these Russians, during the course of my interviews, and I say, Well, you know, your system, you know, you have these people at the very top. What do you think your system is? Like?
Jason Hartman 29:25
I mean, America is really different, but not not to that degree.
Ben Mezrich 29:29
I mean, not not to that degree, you don’t have bodies piling up in the streets? I don’t know. I mean, where does it go? Where it will there ever be a middle class a really, really strong middle class in Russia? It’s hard to imagine, but it’s certainly possible. But there really is this division. I mean, the very wealthy there live very different lives than the regular people. I mean, they’re, the wealthy have actually lights they can put on their cars, they don’t have to go through traffic. It’s that level of sort of elitism when you’re at the very top But I don’t know, I don’t know, it’s a good question whether they’ll be sort of a strong middle class ever.
Jason Hartman 30:05
You know what the Russian people, they’re, they’re happy with Putin. And it’s funny that you use the word abdicate. I mean, that’s just almost hilarious, you know, for Do you use that word, but it’s, it’s really true, isn’t it? He’s just gonna decide how long he’s gonna stay there. Right, right. I
Ben Mezrich 30:19
mean, even when someone else was president for a short period of time, he was really running the country. So it’s the kind of situation where you, he’s pretty much going to be there until he doesn’t want to be there anymore.
Jason Hartman 30:29
How exactly is that engineered? Is it? Is it engineered because any opponent is going to be assassinated? Or is it engineered because the election is rigged?
Ben Mezrich 30:37
I don’t think it’s necessarily to its best. I mean, when that is the thing, and it’s interesting, whenever sort of one of recently one of his opposition leaders was, was killed, and Putin’s responsible, you know, he wasn’t a threat to me, you know, the idea that the Kremlin would have him killed, he wasn’t a threat to the Kremlin. And that’s true. None of these opposition leaders are a threat to Putin, who claimed that it was a setup to to make him look bad. And you know, there’s some logic to that, in that there’s no reason for Putin to have killed this guy. The same thing with Boris Berezovsky, the main character of my book, he found hanging in 2012. And bears offski, you know, was a big enemy to Putin. And Putin’s response was, well, he was nothing to me. And I think that is somewhat true. And when you think about, you know, it’s not that other people won’t run against him, because they might get murdered, it’s that no one can win against him. There is nobody who can be more popular than Putin there. Because people love him, he’s very strong. And there’s no other party, you know, that has any level of, of popularity anywhere near Putin’s popularity. And so unless that changes, I don’t see anyone ever winning against him. But you know, he can place the country in someone else’s hands, which is what yeltsin did with him, and that he eventually will do
Jason Hartman 31:51
Tell us, you know, any more, if you can about how Putin and yeltsin, you know, use that political system to become these kingmakers and massive multi billionaires, right?
Ben Mezrich 32:02
Well, yeltsin goal was very good, you know, what was happening was in the early 90s, it looked like communism was going to come back. communism was very strong, and and yeltsin created this privatization system to try and fight back against communism, his thinking was that we can quickly give the country away to businessmen, and turn it capitalist overnight, the communists will never come back. And so that’s what created this system of oligarchy is basically they would hand the oil company or hand the steel company, to whoever was was, you know, able to take it. And thus handed it off to this group of young people who came from nowhere, and suddenly were the richest men in the world. And then sort of Yeltsin was dying, and I hand it off to Putin. And then Putin, of course, changed everything and and took the oligarchs money back are essentially the ones that were opposed him. So you know, in a way the country is moving in the right direction. It went from communism to capitalism, almost overnight, and now it’s, its goal is stability. But its stability underneath one strong leader, where it goes next is the question is whether it ever can become truly democratic or not. But, you know, it’s hard to know,
Jason Hartman 33:12
Did you hear the story a couple of years ago, maybe, about how Putin was behind the movement to pay couples in Russia to have kids because, you know, I mean, Russia, quite literally is a dying country. So is Japan. So most of Europe now, you know, in terms of birth rates? I mean, it’s it’s just, you know, and the alcoholism problem, and the, you know, longevity is very low there, etc. So, you know, I just want to get your take on that.
Ben Mezrich 33:39
Yeah, I mean, I’ve heard that before, not just Yeah, like you said, not just Russia, there’s a number of countries that are having issues with that. I think that, you know, population is important demographics are very important. A lot of people said one of Russia’s biggest problems is demography is that the part of the reason they wanted to go after the Ukraine is they want more Russian people. And the goal is to get them however you can, wherever they are.
Jason Hartman 34:01
It’s a recruiting effort, though,
Ben Mezrich 34:02
I certainly think that is an issue. I don’t know if Putin thinks about that, and sort of forward thinking way. But I do think that that is an issue for them. And that birth rate needs to go up for it to continue.
Jason Hartman 34:13
Yeah, very interesting. What about the oil price issue? I had a couple of guests on my shows that talked about how, you know, the this basically, what’s going on with oil? I mean, one, one of the motives of the long time expert in the in the industry, said that basically, the US was suppressing the oil price intentionally as part of a war with Russia to punish Russia with lower oil prices. What do you make of that? And what do you make of the oil play in general? Maybe?
Ben Mezrich 34:44
Yeah, I mean, I’ve heard that before, too. I definitely think that the Russia’s greatest threat is oil prices going down. It’s a country built on on oil money. And so as their prices go down, it squeezes their economy to no end and I think they believe, or at least Putin believes that it’s a Western wet In the price of oil is being used as a weapon against them. I don’t know. I mean, it’s a good question. I don’t know the answer to
Jason Hartman 35:05
Good stuff. Well, you thought your website if you would tell people where they can find all 17 of your books. Yeah,
Ben Mezrich 35:11
I’m at Ben mezrich.com. It’s just my name. Or I’m on Facebook at Ben Mezrich. I’m at Twitter at Ben Mezrich. So yeah, and it’s in every bookstore now on Amazon everything.
Jason Hartman 35:25
So once upon a time and Russia is out now. Then, any question I didn’t ask you anything that you want to share?
Ben Mezrich 35:29
No, that was great. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Jason Hartman 35:30
Ben Mezrich, thank you for joining us.
Ben Mezrich 35:32
Thank you very much.
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