To: gao seng who wrote (135661 ) 4/5/2001 9:06:45 AM From: Neocon Read Replies (1) | Respond to Russia needed the resolve that Poland showed, in weaning itself from socialism and setting firmly on a market path. After a brief troubled period, it began robust growth. Instead, in Russia there were half measures, like opening land to long term leasing rather than actually selling it, and allowing the nomenklatura to loot a lot of the "privatized" enterprises. The continued politicization of the economy, and the inefficiencies that were perpetuated, made the rise of the Mafiya almost inevitable, by exploiting corruption and the opportunity for black market profits. This further exacerbated the situation, as extortion was used to drain resources from the struggling aboveboard economy, and capital was siphoned out of the country to be converted to hard currency in Swiss banks.
