Director of the Moscow-based Institute of Globalization Studies. Member of the Valdai Discussion Club.
Accession to the WTO guarantees that Russia will not defend its market and its producers, and this is important for major foreign exporters, especially for global corporations. That is why they strongly supported the liberal fundamentalists. Russia will not be able to defend its market by civilized means.
As private business continues to grow in Russia, the majority of businesspeople are coming to adopt a conscientious attitude to their own society as a core value. This attitude is part of human nature. A vague feeling of past guilt towards society is compelling well-to-do people to atone for it unconsciously.
Russia has gone from a recipient to a donor of IMF aid. Moral satisfaction will have to suffice, because Russian leaders are unable to influence IMF policy.
The high price of oil ensured higher revenue than was projected. But, unlike in previous years, the Finance Ministry is spending government money in compliance with the schedule without delay or underfinancing. But this is only true about the total, not about specific expenditure items.
The rapid growth of the super-rich in Russia is not accompanied by solid development, to say nothing of modernization. The money spent on luxurious yachts, foreign sports teams, palaces all over the world is money that can’t be invested in Russia’s development – road construction, upgrading rundown utilities, restoration of the countryside and the creation of modern jobs.
Strategy-2020 is an ill-fated document. Implementing this strategy would mean a new round of liberal reforms in Russia, causing the destruction of its social environment and the economy. However, this may come to pass because Russian liberals, the foot soldiers of global business, are influential and almost fully control socio-economic policy.
Vladimir Putin has so far failed to present a coherent economic program. What is clear, at least in broad strokes, is how the prime minister understands the global economic crisis.
