Wednesday, November 28, 2007. Issue 3795. Page 9.
Unmasking President Putin's Grandiose Myth
By Anders Aslund

Most political leaders are mediocre, a few are heroes and some are just plain lucky.

In Russia, many see President Vladimir Putin as a hero -- an authoritarian reformer who has brought economic growth and stability to Russia. But let's scrutinize his record a little closer. Russia's outstanding achievement is that its gross domestic product has increased six fold from $200 billion in 1999 to $1.2 trillion this year, but this is primarily a result of the market reforms undertaken in the 1990s.

The real growth rate is not outstanding. The whole Eurasian region raging from China to the Baltics has been growing at rates from 7 percent to 11 percent annually since 2000, but Russia's growth rate has only been 6.7 percent. In spite of its abundance of oil and gas, it ranks 9th among the 15 former Soviet republics in growth for this period. The reason is that Russia is lagging behind in most reforms.

Financial stabilization remains incomplete. Last year, inflation stopped at 9 percent, but it is rising. Before the State Duma elections...

Read the full article Anders Aslund and Stanislav Belkovsky at the blog DB330.

LINKS TO DB330 removed because the articles are gone and there is a medical product advertisement listed on the site in its place.

DB330 is based in New York and covers Russian politics -- especially foreign affairs. Until recently, the blog was probably most notable for its listing of public figures DB330 believes to be Russophiles and Russophobes.