In fact, since the collapse of the USSR, we were following Soviet model because it can't be changed in 1 day. And all this time we were trying to move away from the Soviet heritage. Russia, in turn, did everything to keep Ukraine under its influence from the very beginning of Ukrainian independence. They had a lot of money to bribe Ukrainian officials and lobby for the necessary laws (or boycott others), because Moscow kept all Soviet assets, including our money in banks as citizens.

And yes, much of what I mentioned belongs to the oligarchs. We have rich resources, but we need money to extract them. The oligarchs have money, and a large part of them is obtained from cooperation with Russia, legal and not. There is nothing new here, Russian money settles in the pockets of high-ranking officials in Austria, Hungary, etc. These funds influence decisions regarding Russia, but these countries themselves were able to build a democratic and legal state. And we are still on this path. I very much hope that after the war there will be huge changes.