Praid Yen

№ 2, 2004

• Russian Puzzle

  British political scientist represents his own vision of political processes in post-Soviet Russia. Contrary to a popular opinion of Russian and Western experts, he denies that the August default of 1998 had been caused only by an error in counting in Russian financial and economic departments. Up to his viewpoint, the clue lies in the Asian crisis of 1997-1998, that had eventually made the financial crash in August inevitable. The author draws political portraits of some Russian politicians, such as Gorbatchev, Yeltsin, Kirienko, Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov. J.Praid provides with detailed description of Putin’s personality. He considers that the initial optimism concerning Russia had been obviously overestimated, and expectations of the West, that an ordinary citizen of the former Soviet Union would have turned in a trice from homo soveticus to homo economicus, were absolutely unrealistic.

  DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2004-33-2-218-233

  Pages: 218-233