The new business elite under the oligarchs had many defining characteristics and legacies that set them apart from other Russian elites such as members of the Soviet nomenklatura. By 2001, only a quarter of the elites had come from Moscow or St. Petersburg, 32 percent of oligarchs came from other cities, and 42 percent of the oligarchs came from small towns or the countryside, a contrast to urban elites in the Soviet past (Krystanovskaya, 2005). The oligarchs also made it much more common for politicians to move from industries to the government rather than from state services to government as it had been in the past. Previously, it common for public figures to retire as diplomats, but as the 20th century ended, politicians were more likely
