Well, they certainly seem to have lost the ability to talk about it coherently. The peaceful disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent course of Russian history is a remarkable story. Unfortunately, one gets very little of the real picture in the Washington Post's piece marking the 15th anniversary of the collapse. For most of the Russian people, the main story is a devastating economic collapse, which led to a decline in per capita GDP of more than one-third from 1990 to 1996. The standard of living for the typical Russian might have fallen even more sharply, as a small group of well-connected business people sezied control of much of the country's wealth. This is indicated by the extraordinary drop in life expectancy in Russia. As the box accompanying the article shows, life expectancy for men fell from 61.9 years in 1992 to 58.9 years in 2004. For women, the drop was from 73.7 years to 72.3 years. Russia's economy has since rebounded, regaining most of the lost ground during the 8 years of sustained growth since 1998. But, the article provides readers no basis for assessing the impact of this rebound on the lives of average Russians. It gets the aggregate numbers completely wrong, telling readers that Russia's "economy has grown fivefold under Putin," and providing no information on median income, wages, unemployment rates or other data that might provide insight into the well-being of typical families. (The aggreate numbers appear to be based on a currency conversion calculation of GDP. This provides almost no information on living standards or growth rates. Economists use purchasing power parity measures of GDP for these purposes. The idea that an economy could grow fivefold in less than a decade is absurd on its face. Actual growth was close to 50 percent, which is still a very impressive pace.) Russia is and will continue to be a very important actor in world politics. It would be helpful to have news reports that give the public more insight into the situation inside the country. [It is worth noting that Russia's rebound in 1998 followed its break with the IMF and the Clinton administration. In his book, Robert Rubin talks of how he gave up the country as lost because it was unwilling to "reform."]
--Dean Baker
