> > Anyhow, I think that Chris is trying to say that, though the Russian > economy tanked after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, its > economy has recovered quite a bit since Russia defaulted on its > foreign debt in 1998. Putin has managed the post-default Russian > economy well by capitalist standards.
BTW I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding that crops up a lot when people say "Putin is pro-business," "Putin is anti-business," "Putin is pro-democracy," "Putin is anti-democracy," or whatever. I think that this misinterprets the worldview of Putin and the rest of those KGB guys who are in power. They are pragmatists, and their goal is the return of Russia to its status as global great power instead of just regional great power (although it's a pretty damn big region). They are pro X, Y, and Z _insofar as_ they believe that it will promote that goal. I do not believe that they have much of an ideology beyond etatism. Which makes sense when you consider that the KGB was not instilled with any particularly strong ideology other than that of unflinching loyalty to the state.
