Anders Åslund
Anders Åslund is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His latest book, with Andrew Kuchins, is The Russia Balance Sheet.
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2009-06-29
| Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently announced that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan have abandoned their separate talks to join the WTO. This amounts to a major reversal of Russian policy, and one that shows who is really in charge in Russia - Putin and his authoritarian, isolationist cronies from the security apparatus, not President Dmitry Medvedev.... read |
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2008-09-18
| Today, the whole world is being hit by a tremendous financial crisis, but Russia is facing a perfect storm. Russia had a good chance to escape unscathed, but, through his ruthlessness and ineptitude, Vladimir Putin has rendered his poor country a prime victim.... read |
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2008-04-28
| Inflation in Ukraine is skyrocketing, because its currency, the hryvnia, remains pegged to the US dollar. Unless Ukraine's central bank floats the currency soon, the outcome is likely to be a costly and unnecessary financial crisis.... read |
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2008-03-26
| Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO's fiercest critic, will attend the alliance's summit in Bucharest on April 2-4. His presence is an embarrassment to NATO, but an even greater disgrace for Russia.... read |
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2007-12-03
| Russia’s economic growth is still driven by the sound market reforms undertaken in the 1990’s and Putin’s first term, together with high oil and gas prices. But, with Vladimire Putin's regime increasingly resembling a parasitic mafia family, the main question now is how fast economic policy will deteriorate.... read |
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2007-04-30
| Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertive foreign policy stance of recent years reflects the confidence that comes with a booming economy. In 1999, the year before Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president, Russia’s GDP was a paltry $200 billion. By last year, it had reached $1 trillion. Real growth has averaged 7% for eight years, and real incomes have grown by roughly 10% per year. Russia’s budget surplus has stood at more than 7% of GDP in the last two years, public debt has dwindled to only 8% of GDP, from 100% in 1999, and the current account surplus has averaged at 10% of GDP for the last eight years.... read |
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2004-12-21
| Ukraine’s ‘Orange Revolution’ will reach its climax on December 26, when Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko will replay their run-off for the presidency. The massive fraud that was supposed to bring victory to Mr Yanukovich, and which incited hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to take to the streets of Kyiv to defent their rights, no longer looks possible. Yet Ukraine’s democratic future is still not guaranteed.... read |
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2004-09-27
| Russia's President Vladimir Putin was incredibly successful in achieving his goals during his first term. He strengthened the power of the federal government, while defeating big business, free media, the communist party, the liberal parties and civil society. Within government, he squezzed regional governors, both chambers of parliament and even the government apparatus, concentrating all legislative, executive and judicial power in himself. Meanwhile, solid macroeconomic stability and steady growth of 6.5% a year were attained.... read |
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2003-11-04
| With the arrest of Russia's richest man, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia has lurched into a deep political crisis. Unwittingly, President Vladimir Putin has opted for an all-or-nothing victory over the oil oligarch. At stake is nothing less than Russia's frail democracy. ... read |
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Post-Soviet Free Trade
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Anders Åslund 
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Ever since the Soviet Union collapsed, the independent states that emerged from the wreckage have tried to sort out their trade relations. But the flow of goods between countries continues to contract even more than it should. What is needed is free trade. ... read
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2004-12-21
| Ukraine’s ‘Orange Revolution’ will reach its climax on December 26, when Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko will replay their run-off for the presidency. The massive fraud that was supposed to bring victory to Mr Yanukovich, and which incited hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to take to the streets of Kyiv to defent their rights, no longer looks possible. Yet Ukraine’s democratic future is still not guaranteed.... read |
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2008-04-28
| Inflation in Ukraine is skyrocketing, because its currency, the hryvnia, remains pegged to the US dollar. Unless Ukraine's central bank floats the currency soon, the outcome is likely to be a costly and unnecessary financial crisis.... read |
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2004-09-27
| Russia's President Vladimir Putin was incredibly successful in achieving his goals during his first term. He strengthened the power of the federal government, while defeating big business, free media, the communist party, the liberal parties and civil society. Within government, he squezzed regional governors, both chambers of parliament and even the government apparatus, concentrating all legislative, executive and judicial power in himself. Meanwhile, solid macroeconomic stability and steady growth of 6.5% a year were attained.... read |
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2008-09-18
| Today, the whole world is being hit by a tremendous financial crisis, but Russia is facing a perfect storm. Russia had a good chance to escape unscathed, but, through his ruthlessness and ineptitude, Vladimir Putin has rendered his poor country a prime victim.... read |
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2003-05-03
| Ever since the Soviet Union collapsed, the independent states that emerged from the wreckage have tried to sort out their trade relations. But the flow of goods between countries continues to contract even more than it should. What is needed is free trade. ... read |
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2008-03-26
| Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO's fiercest critic, will attend the alliance's summit in Bucharest on April 2-4. His presence is an embarrassment to NATO, but an even greater disgrace for Russia.... read |
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2000-11-27
| MOSCOW: Being president of Russia is often caricatured as being like a tsar, but the powers of President Vladimir Putin are more constrained than the Kremlin’s former autocrats and Politburo chieftains. An obvious sign of this is the amount of time Putin spends on foreign trips with little diplomatic justification. Diplomacy, however, allows a president opportunity to enhance his authority for future domestic battles. ... read |
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2007-04-30
| Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertive foreign policy stance of recent years reflects the confidence that comes with a booming economy. In 1999, the year before Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president, Russia’s GDP was a paltry $200 billion. By last year, it had reached $1 trillion. Real growth has averaged 7% for eight years, and real incomes have grown by roughly 10% per year. Russia’s budget surplus has stood at more than 7% of GDP in the last two years, public debt has dwindled to only 8% of GDP, from 100% in 1999, and the current account surplus has averaged at 10% of GDP for the last eight years.... read |
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2007-12-03
| Russia’s economic growth is still driven by the sound market reforms undertaken in the 1990’s and Putin’s first term, together with high oil and gas prices. But, with Vladimire Putin's regime increasingly resembling a parasitic mafia family, the main question now is how fast economic policy will deteriorate.... read |
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The Vanishing Swedish Exception?
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Anders Åslund
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For the past two years, Western Europe's voters have been turning rightward. In Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal, concerns about immigration, chronic unemployment, high taxes, and deteriorating public services have fuelled this trend. But as Europe's most recent parliamentary election shows, Sweden's Social Democrats--in power for 61 of the past 70 years--remain relatively immune to serious challenges from the right. ... read
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Is Putin Self-Destructing?
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Anders Åslund
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With the arrest of Russia's richest man, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia has lurched into a deep political crisis. Unwittingly, President Vladimir Putin has opted for an all-or-nothing victory over the oil oligarch. At stake is nothing less than Russia's frail democracy. ... read
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