Russia’s oligarchs behaved like the masters of a 1970s petrostate, harboring their wealth in offshore havens like Cyprus, from where it cycled back to London and its convenient eurodollar accounts. From the early 2000s the pattern was further complicated by a large flow of funds back to Russia. In 2007 this peaked at an annual total of $180.7 billion, of which only $27.8 billion was foreign direct investment (FDI).
