President Dmitri Medvedev has publicly stated that Russia needs to change course if it does not want to end up as a third-world country. Igor Shuvalov, the first deputy prime minister, recently told investors that although Russia had suffered its worse recession in a decade, it would be transformed into a "new country” by 2020 through innovation and investment in "human capital.” He said the investment climate would be significantly improved within a year through a reduction of red tape and a clean-up of the court system.
The problem is that we’ve heard this before. When Vladimir Putin moved into the Kremlin a decade ago he promised to ensure the rule of law and to tackle corruption. But under his watch there has been no progress toward an independent judiciary, and the corrupt bureaucracy has been allowed to expand.
It was under Mr. Putin that assets were taken from Yukos, Shell and BP. It was under Mr. Putin that a growing ...
