President Putin seems to be somewhat concerned about how difficult it is to run a small or medium sized business in Russia these days. With uncharacteristic flair he described their working conditions as:
“an orgy and an insult to people and to commonsense.” He demanded that the government and the regional authorities should improve the situation by joint efforts.
“All those who start a new business and register a new firm should be awarded a medal for personal courage, because the government and the regional authorities have failed so far to create conditions, in which small and medium business would develop freely,” the President said at a meeting with members of the cabinet in the Kremlin on Monday.
He’s right to address the issue, of course. Without developing smaller business enterprises, Russia is going to get absolutely hammered if oil prices collapse.
And he is right to say that much of the problem is with regional authorities. Most of obstacles that small businesses face are met at the local level - bureaucracy, demands for bribes, etc. But some of the blame has to go right back up to Putin, who is in the process of setting up a political system based on patronage rather than accountability. If corruption at the highest levels is increasing, how does he expect it to begin decreasing at lower levels?
- What next?
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