Everything changed in late February. The geopolitical landscape fractured, and suddenly, the "insulation" began to feel like a cage. The term "sanctions" moved from the financial pages to our breakfast table. One morning, we were discussing a yacht refit; the next, we were watching news reports of that same yacht being seized in a Mediterranean port.
2022: My Life with an Oligarch The year 2022 began like a fever dream of gold leaf and private jets, but it ended as a cold lesson in the fragility of power. To live in the orbit of an oligarch is to exist in a curated reality where the laws of physics and finance seem optional—until the world decides to reassert them. The Gilded Bubble
The shift was psychological as much as financial. The confidence that had once radiated from him—the absolute certainty that any problem could be bought off—evaporated. The phone calls changed. They were no longer about acquisitions or mergers; they were hushed, frantic conversations about offshore accounts, frozen assets, and "restructuring." The social circle, once teeming with sycophants and power-players, shrank overnight. In the high-stakes world of the ultra-wealthy, "contagion" is the most feared word, and we had become the source. The Great Unraveling