Old habits die hard.
These should be the best of times for oil-rich Russia, with prices remaining above $50 per barrel. Instead, foreign investors are fleeing, and with them skills, technology, and capital. Amazing how that happens when the state seizes private property and puts businessmen in jail for supposed tax-evasion. Net capital outflow has quadrupled, from $2b to $9b, in one year.
But it’s not just Yukos. Many other companies have been harassed as well.
Putin is promising changes for the better, but given his track record, he lacks credibility. As one businessman notes:
“The harm was done. Also, the hunting dogs of law enforcement and tax collection are out. Once they’ve tasted blood, it’s very hard to get them back on the leash.”
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That last part was a perfect quote.
I’m even willing to admit that many businessmen in Russia are slimy mafia-dealing corrupt criminals. But there are good ways to deal with them, and Putin has chosen a bad one.
Just as there was a chance that Russia would go down the right path in 1917, there is a chance that Russia could successfully achieve true freedom after the 1989 revolution. That hope seems to be fading rapidly. Hopefully the results will not be as bloody.
Hi, just discovered your blog via Google, I would like to keep in touch and receive, publish or promote information on your think tank activities.
My blog http://ideenwerk.blogspot.com focuses on globalization issues (rather pro than contra…), current affairs, new ideas, education and creativity and tries to make as many ideas accessible to as many people as possible.
Most welcome are comments in English or German but also in Spanish or Greek.
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