Well, empirically, Jews and Caucasians do dominate the Russian mob, so it's not just xenophobia, though there is some of that of course. There is only one goy oligarch, Vladimir Potanin. Vagit Alekhperov of LUKoil might qualify as an oligarch, I guess. He's a Tatar, I believe. What's his name who was accused of trying to rig the Olympics is an Uzbek.
It's amazing how attuned you get to people's "nationalities" being in Russia. There is very little psychologically invested in being a Russian citizen, but a lot in being Russian, Ukrainian, Azeri, Jewish, Ukrainian, Avar, Uzbek or whatever. Practically the first thing people ask each other is what their nationality is.
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