With the news this month of the death of Boris Yeltsin, it has been an opportunity to look back at the economic legacy of the first democratically-elected President of Russia. Boris Yeltsin took over at a time when all goods were scarce and the industrial infrastructure was crumbling. He adopted policies of extensive privatisation and abandoned price controls. To what extent has this created the Russia of today and what is the legacy he has left behind?
Yeltsin’s moment The Economist (subscription) (26/4/07)
Yeltsin’s economic legacy BBC News Online (24/4/07)
Questions
| 1. | Explain the reasoning behind the policies that were adopted by Boris Yeltsin in his early years in office. |
| 2. | Discuss the extent to which those policies enabled the development of the Russian economy. |
| 3. | Assess the current state of the Russian economy. |