Sanders probably isn’t saying that the US is identical to Russia. But the oligarchic nature in terms of policy preferences and influence when it comes to governance in the US seems to be a settled issue, per the 2014 landmark study [0].

[0] https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/fi...

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-ol...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/2...

I think a lot of comparisons about oligarchy miss the point.

Sure America doesn't have an oligarchy as defined by the textbook. But that means that the textbook definition is inadequate. It doesn't take away the fact that rich families control politics in America using its various media, lobbying, and charitable instruments. The oligarchy in America is very much quid pro quo. You donate to politician (ahem, their campaigns, fundraisers and charities) and politician does things for you.

Sure America doesn't have an oligarchy that looks like Russian oligarchy. But American political system is also different from Russian political system. The rules of the game are different in the two countries. Russian oligarchs are playing the game according to Russian rules, American oligarchs are playing the game according to American rules.

Pretty weak comparison. Bernie was able to run for president without being poisoned or jailed.

I wonder if that would still hold if elections were direct with more than one round, in absence of the Electoral College indirect system. With indirect elections, candidates that risk "rocking the boat" too much can be derailed and filtered out more discreetly, without resort to the extreme methods seen in Russia.

Both sides would agree the last US president passed the bar for "rocking the boat" with flying colors and yet the Electoral College didn't "filter" him.

This is a misrepresentation of the how the electoral college functions. All it does is change the weight each state has over the result in a systematic and well understood way. It doesn’t in practice made any decisions about the results.

No, just crucified by the media. Why kill anyone if you can make the masses believe anything you want?

In addition to the near-Ron-Paul media mistreatment pointed out by another commenter, there is evidence he was physically attacked before "backing" Clinton.

Ah really? Does he know what Russia is like? How much time has he spent in any formerly sowjet country, let alone Russia?

he actually went to and praised USSR when he was much younger

From a quick couple "Ctrl-F"'s - very little of the article is about oligarchs, and even less about Russia.

Also - my understanding is that Putin decided quite a while ago that the oligarchs had more power than he liked, and undertook measures to "fix" that problem. For example - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_businessmen_myste...

Oligarchs used to run Russia. Putin has been eliminating oligarchs one by one, replacing them with (or making them) his puppets. There is no real oligarchs left in Russia today.

And guess what, this is a change for the worse.

I am not saying oligarchy is good, I am saying Bernie should get a quick update on what happened to Russia in the last 10 years.