Some estimate Mr. Putin may be worth $100 billion via hidden holdings in Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy company. But Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are worth more and they don’t control any tanks. Their success shows the world is now divided into horizontal slices, with the most productive sitting on top. The American empire, if you want to call it that, is a horizontal empire. Mr. Putin’s attempt to re-create the Soviet Union’s vertical empire is doomed to fail.