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So why does he keep stealing more and on a larger scale, tell me please?

If this is about Yanukovych, I'm not in the loop, Ukrainians know better.

And if it's about Putin, personally he doesn't steal much, the reasons are described above. But he allows his inner circle to steal — if you don't feed your support group, someone else will feed them. That's how it has been and will be everywhere and at all times. Stalin, for example, often turned a blind eye to abuses in the state apparatus.

Although calling it theft is not entirely appropriate, it's more of a status rent. Moreover, for top officials, the situation is rather similar to Putin's — political ambitions are generally more important to them than material wealth. A noticeable share of purely material motivation starts somewhere on the 3rd or 4th floor of the vertical power structure.