Much of Russian history is characterized by pendulum swings between orthodoxy and reform to overcome backwardness. Russia is again debating reform and the West has a vital stake.
The economic crisis has hit Russian regions hard. Natalya Zubarevich deems government solutions to the resulting unemployment to be mainly a smoke and mirrors job, which conceals a real unemployment figure of 8%.
International economic indicators suggest that Russia’s problems are not those of the developing world. Relatively speaking, its people are not poor. But its economy is just not free
Yegor Gaidar, architect of the radical economic reforms in Russia which followed the fall of Soviet power, died on 15 December. Dmitry Travin reflects on the achievement of a great economist and patriot who saved his country and quietly shouldered the hatred that followed.
Russia's President Medvedev has warned that continued dependence on raw materials exports has a negative impact on industrial production and the development of his country. But there can be no modernisation in Russia without tackling corruption and this will be impossible without reforming politic
Ukraine has proved exceptionally vulnerable to the economic crisis, says Grigory Gritsenko. Dependent on its exports, it is hampered both by its dependence on its Russian neighbour for gas and the poverty of its internal market.
