No Russian Leader in 40 Years has Cared about Development, Lipsits Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 17 – Russia has “only one economic problem,” Igor Lipsits, an economist at the Higher School of Economics, says. “For about 40 years, the country has been run by people who are completely uninterested in developing the country and raising the standard of living of the population.”

            As a result, these leaders again and again have adopted policies which are either “senseless” or “harmful” or both at one and the same time, the senior specialist on economic development says. All other explanations of Russia’s economic travails are secondary or wrong (tvrain.ru/teleshow/dengi_prjamaja_linija/igor_lipsits-534263/).

            The powers that be don’t listen to business, their approach to managing prices is counterproductive, they are making Russia ever less attractive as a place for domestic or foreign investment, they are driving out and not attracting back immigrant workers, and they adopt policies based on short-term considerations that have long-term negative consequences.

            Unless and until Russia becomes a normal country whose government cares above all about promoting growth and the improvement of the quality of life of the population, none of this is going to change fundamentally. And unfortunately, at the present time, there is little sign that such a change is going to take place anytime soon.