alt Hacker NewsThe saddest part is that while the 90s were severe, Russia could have changed for the better.. and the worst part is neighboring countries are suffering along with it.
There was a failure of institutional reform - in fact the only institution that seemed to have reformed was corruption, which changed from one elite to another.
A lot of the current state propaganda tries really hard to spin the narrative "democratic reform never again, look at the 90s"!
Like if democracy is something easy, and plug and play... Or like there's some magical impediment that doesn't allow Russians to go from serfdom to free citizens, as if it's too much for them.
For how many centuries did France iterate to implement democracy? The US had a brutal civil war. Japan had to pick itself up after WW2 and change part of the culture. Germany had to be rebuilt.
Now we're witnessing another upcoming 90s in Russia - who knows if it will be worse since Russia folded into a regional power.
Such a missed opportunity right next to a growing European Union, and China.
You should look into "shock therapy" and how western powers advised the Russian government at the time. Also how oligarchs came to power from the late 80s to the late 90s. Russia experienced unhinged free market reforms applied by incompetent politicians and opportunists who managed to sell out the accumulated wealth of the former RSFSR in just a few years. I don't see how neighboring countries are "suffering along" – e.g. Ukraine got all its debts forgiven and inherited specialized industries which were subsidized by Russia during soviet times. They had 25 years to make something out of it and did basically nothing.
We'll see how the European Union will "grow" in the next years...