Aslund: Russia’s Situation is Untenable

In his latest book, Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed, Anders Aslund describes Russia’s successful transition to a market economy, and its failure to transform into a democracy. Aslund concludes that this situation is not likely to hold as Russia is too wealthy, educated, pluralist, and open to be so authoritarian. He argues that either the market economy or the authoritarian rule will have to give. His view of Putin is critical; he observes that Putin has created a system that leaves him little choice but to stay on as president.

The book provides a broad overview of Russia's economic and political history from Gorbachev’s entry in 1985 until the present. The author uses a revolutionary paradigm to make sense of Russia’s recent past.

Anders Aslund is the Chairman of the CASE Advisory council and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC. For more on the book, see the Peterson Institute bookstore.