u/Spacecortez - originally from r/GenZhou
The exclusion of Russian oligarchs from part of the imperialist system does not mean that they are excluded from all of it. Lenin’s 5th point there does not talk about capitalists reaching a consensus over how the territorial division of the world amongst the biggest capitalist powers is completed, it only mentions that the territories of the world are divided amongst the biggest imperialist power.

Borrowing cited figures here from Prolekult, the internal economy of Russia is dominated by Russian monopoly capital, with over 41% of it’s GDP accounted for by just 10 Russian companies. Russian monopoly capital significantly penetrates foreign markets. Altough the precise rate of capital exports is difficult to calculate because of the widespread us of financial tricks like “round-tripping”, where the money flows through off-shore tax-havens to find favourable investment conditions, capital export accounts for over 30% of the assets of 5 of the top-15 Russian companies. Russian investment abroad rose by over 10,000% from 1995 to 2007, but has only doubled since then due to the stagnation provoked by the crisis of 2008. Russian capital export results in the super-exploitation of other countries, for example 55% of investment in Uzbekistan being Russian capital.

So the territory of Russia is dominated by Russian monopoly capital, and Russian monopoly capital also has a significant share of the territory of other countries, a core feature of imperialism.

Lenin included Germany amongst imperialist powers of the world of his time, even though it was at war with Britain, the dominant imperialist power. He argued against the idea that Germany, as a lesser power, was playing a progressive role in its war on the grounds of its defence against the global hegemon. He included Russia amongst the imperialist powers, even though it was financially far smaller than either Britain or Germany. He argued against the idea that Russia played a progressive role in the war on the grounds of its support for Serbian national liberation. He did not hesitate to call the world war an imperialist war, a dispute amongst imperialist powers over how the world’s territories should be divided.

The war currently taking place in Russia includes amongst its internal contradictions the contradiction of Russian security with continuing NATO encroachment, the contradiction of workers in Donetsk and Luhansk against their Bourgeoisie and against political domination from Kiev, and nationalist and ethnic contradictions within Ukraine and its diaspora. But it’s primary contradiction is that of an imperialist dispute over the division of territory for imperialist capitals. Because, in fact, Russia is an imperialist power and part of the world imperialist system.