The Results of Privatization in Russia and the Tasks of the New Stage

Abstract

>p>In the process of elaborating future privatization steps and evaluating what has been done, it is extremely important not to become fixated on any one ministry, department, or government, but rather to develop a broad discussion in which all political forces in Russia may participate. Without such a discussion, there is no purpose served by developing a conception of a complex problem like privatization.>/p>>p>Privatization in Russia is based on the Law on Privatization, a state program. At the same time, for well-known reasons a considerable part of the existing privatization legislation is based on presidential ukases and government decrees. Essentially, in late 1992 and early 1993, the Supreme Soviet initially withdrew, but then decided simply to impede privatization, adopting a whole list of decrees one after another that prohibit, repeal, halt, and disrupt the process. Such a scale and depth of the reform process are inconceivable without a developed normative base. Such a base exists today, and it covers a large part of the principal problems in this sphere, even though it naturally cannot be said that all legal and normative problems of privatization have already been resolved. The third volume of normative documents on privatization was published recently, and this is fundamentally important.>/p>