the.com/oligarch

means A member of a small group that holds power or wealth in a country, often ruling behind the scenes rather than through public office.

from From Greek oligarkhes, fusing oligos ('few') with arkhein ('to rule') — the same -archy family that gives us monarchy and anarchy. The Greeks coined it to describe rule by the few as a distinct category from democracy (rule by the many) or monarchy (rule by one). The word entered English in the 1500s as plain political vocabulary, but its modern bite comes from late-20th-century Russia, where it was attached to the small circle of businessmen who acquired vast state assets during privatization — turning an old term for a type of government into a label for the men who seemed to own one.