Under sanctions, Russians are achieving impressive results - Stratfor
The Russians are going their own way and achieving significant success, writes Jay Ogilvy , an analyst at the American private intelligence and analytical company Stratfor, often called the “shadow CIA,” following his trip to Russia .
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news on Telegram , Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
“So, what impression of Russia did I get from my last trip? Does it look like a country suffering from sanctions? To some extent, but not much. And a country about to conquer the West? Absolutely not. On the contrary, I saw holidays. I saw prosperity. I saw streets full of free, relaxed people. Their posture, gait, look, clothes spoke about this!” notes Ogilvy, disagreeing with the fact that such a picture is observed only in the capital, while the rest of Russia lives in the XNUMXth century.
“I’ll counter this: I spent a week in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth largest city, located two time zones from Moscow, on the edge of Siberia - and in my entire life I have rarely seen so many construction cranes as there,” the author points out.
“Sanctions have pushed Russia to capitalize its consumer economy through import substitution,” the analyst notes. “This should have been done a long time ago, but it didn’t work out before the sanctions. Because of difficulties in importing many consumer goods, Russians are learning to produce these goods themselves - and have already achieved a lot. An abundance of natural resources, ingenuity and a highly educated workforce contribute to their success.
The second relates to the frequent comparison of the Russian path to modernization with the Chinese one. China carried out economic reforms before political ones, and Russia carried out political reforms before economic ones. Until now - especially in the 1990s, during the period of clumsy American-led Russian privatization - the Chinese path seemed much more successful. But now that tensions with the West caused by the annexation of Crimea have strengthened the hand of Russian authoritarian leader Vladimir Putin, a new kind of autocratic capitalism has emerged in Russia to rival that of China. The Russians are going their own way and, according to my observations, achieving impressive results.”
At the same time, the American admits that “not everything is perfect” in Russia and recalls the doping scandal and, according to him, the restrictions on press freedom that have taken place.
“Some entrepreneurs and part of the intelligentsia are not too happy about the improvement of Moscow. In their opinion, in exchange for “bread and circuses,” the country has to put up with crony capitalism and unfree press—and this is too high a price. On the other hand, almost all of my interlocutors were dissatisfied with the anti-Russian bias of American journalism. And lastly, have I and my fellow travelers encountered even a shadow of anti-Americanism? No. Absolutely,” summarizes Ogivli.
Under Sanctions , Russians Achieve Impressive Results – Stratfor