Outin vows to nurture small businesses

[ChrisD(RJ)]

Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, who doubles as a Russia expert, 
tells me that she doubts the story of a Russian economic expansion - 
independent, that is, of the periods of strength in the oil market. 
She said that just the other week, Putin was meeting with a bunch of 
industrial policy types, trying to figure out how to get some serious 
development going - suggesting that he deosn't believe in the 
expansion much either. Any thoughts?

Doug
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Heuvel would also be the wife of Stephen Cohen, right?

As I've said before, IMO high oil prices are a big factor, but I don't think
they're the only one. Why isn't all the extra income just getting stolen?
That's what happened in the 90s. I think the era of primitive accumulation
has ended and a stabler form of oligarchic capitalism has taken shape.

The concern in Putin's mind is probably not expansion as much as rate of
expansion. Russia wants to catch up to the West.

PS. I mentioned increasing wage arrears in a previous post. It turns out
that the arrears are mostly a result of the government's increasing wages
for government employees and teachers, which apparently some of the regional
treasuries are having problems handling.

Chris Doss
The Russia Journal