How Donald Trump's path to power eerily parallels Vladimir Putin's

There are many differences, of course. But the similarities are unsettling.

Their rise to power is strikingly similar.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Stevo Vasiljevic)

The story of Vladimir Putin's rise begins with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

There were two schools of thought on how to reform and liberalize the crumbling communist empire. The "gradualists" wanted to move slowly into capitalism. The "shock therapists" wanted to do it all at once, by immediately removing government control over wages and prices, imposing austerity, and privatizing everything. When the Soviet Union officially dissolved, the shock therapists got their way.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.