The Russian Economy and Russian Economic Policies Since 1991

Author(s): Philip Hanson
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Aglaya Snetkov, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 109
Pages: 5-8
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute of History, University of Basel
Publication Year: 2012

Post-communist economic transformation, like old age, is not for wimps. Even in countries that are commonly regarded as success stories, like Estonia and Poland, the going has been tough. In Russia, as in other CIS countries, the change from centrally-planned socialism to market capitalism has been particularly difficult. It has also been only partly successful. In what follows, I offer some thoughts on economic transformation in general, followed by a brief narrative and an even briefer assessment. My conclusion is that Russia, along with the whole of the CIS, has been weighed down by extremely poor initial conditions and by a lack of either elite or popular appetite for radical liberalization of the economy.

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