Privatization and Transition in Russia in the Early 1990s

Conclusion

Introduction

In previous chapters we describe in some detail the background, objectives and implementation of the 1992 Russian Privatization Programme, as well as the subsequent waves of privatization.

We emphasize, in an effort to provide a precise narrative, that the 1992 Programme was designed for implementation of a prior law passed almost a year earlier by the Russian Supreme Soviet. This background is better known in Russian than in western literature on the subject. The programme itself was a compromise, not a unified construct. The sponsors of the Privatization Programme of 1992 had only a limited ability to ensure that it was implemented in spirit and letter, in part because Yeltsin’s “rule by decree” gave reformers power ...