The open letter that became known as the “Letter of the Thirteen” (titled "A Way Out of the Dead End"), signed by thirteen of post-Soviet Russia’s most powerful businessmen ahead of the 1996 presidential election, reflected the power of capital in post-Soviet politics.

“A Way Out of the Dead End,” an op-ed co-authored by prominent Russian “oligarchs” and published in the Wall Street Journal-like daily “Kommersant” in April 1996, which announced their intention to use their considerable media resources to sink the Communist Gennady Zyuganov in the upcoming 1996 presidential election.