The 10-Step Program for State Capture

We have just had a textbook example of "state capture" demonstrated in Ukraine. Just in case you don't know what the steps are, here's a quick outline: 1. Send in undercover agents to find unhappy, power-hungry, ruthless people willing to create a ruckus, then promise them positions of power if they will help topple the current government. 2. Begin sending them guns, money, and agents to help make chaos until the government falls. 3. Quickly empty the government coffers using Promis software to transfer it via satellite to hidden accounts. 4. Blame the toppled government for taking the money. 5. Tell the people they have been robbed and must either undergo a period of severe 'austerity' or, if they are cooperative, accept a loan. 6. Bring in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to make a big loan, with interest. 7. Set up a 'democracy' with 'elections' that can be manipulated. 8. Institute capitalism - a system that involves a process of shoveling money up the pyramid to the guy at the top. 9. Ensure that the former governmental leaders won't be reconsidered for power by accusing them of homosexuality, lavish living, legal impropriety, or other things that seek to make them look illegitimate and unworthy. 10. Carry on a media campaign that presents nothing but propaganda, falsehoods, and bias. That's it! You're done! You have people in power who will do your bidding, the country's financial system is under your control, you have elections under your control, and voila! you help yourself to the natural resources the country has, make business decision that favor you and bankrupt them, and maybe have gained a strategic position in terms of war or shipping. A bonus would be that it also forms a cover for something else that you're trying to get away with!