Red square blues

摘要

Not long ago, Russia proudly counted itself as one of the brics-with Brazil, India and China, the four emerging-market giants that were outgrowing the rich world. Yet it now makes more sense to talk of the bics. With gdp shrinking by almostrn10% in the year to the first quarter, Russia is in deep recession.rnThis is upsetting and worrying for the country's political masters in the Kremlin. Upsetting because, as late as last autumn, they dismissed the economic crisis as a Western problem that would leave Russia unscathed. But the collapse inrnthe oil markets has shown just how much Russia still depends on getting a good price for its natural resources. Neither President Vladimir Putin in 2000-08 nor (since last May) President Dmitry Medvedev has done anything like enough to diversify the economy-indeed, it depends more on oil and gas now than it did. The government has utterly failed to create a legal and political infrastructure to support business and enterprise.