The co-editor of a new book on the
efforts of 28 socialist countries to move toward a market-based
economy in the post-Soviet world has concluded that Russia's bungled
reform effort was "the biggest man-made economic disaster on
record."
Vladimir Popov, co-editor of "Transition
and Institutions: The Experience of Gradual and Late Reformers,"
launched this week in Moscow, said Russia suffered more than all the
former socialist states because key figures like Yegor Gaidar and
Viktor Chernomyrdin too drastically cut spending on ordinary
government, including health care, education and law and order.
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