America and Russia in the 1990s: This is what real meddling looks like

It’s hard to imagine having more direct control over a foreign country’s political system — short of a straight-up military occupation.

“We created a virtual open shop for thievery at a national level and for capital flight in terms of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the raping of natural resources and industries on a scale which I doubt has ever taken place in human history.”

—E. Wayne Merry, a U.S. Embassy official in Moscow during the 1990s.