In the autumn of 1991, a group of young economists headed by Yegor Gaidar started working on a series of economic reforms for Russia.  In celebration of this 20th anniversary, we are this week publishing a series of 5 articles. They are written from various standpoints and consider the successes and the failures of these reforms.

On the one hand, it is clear that there have been qualitative changes in Russia, which have led to it becoming more or less a market economy. 

On the other hand, the authors’ assessment of the rate of change, the results of privatisation, the influence of the politics on the economy, the scale of corruption and the development of the banking system has led them to conclude that Russia today is in a very difficult place because the changes have ground to a halt.

These 5 articles are the fruit of cooperation between openDemocracy Russia and 2 of St Petersburg’s academic institutions: the M-Centre [Centre for the Study of Modernisation] at the European University of St Petersburg, and the Friedrich von Hayek Institute. The authors are: 

• Dmitry Travin, Head of Research, M-Centre and Professor, European University of St Petersburg
• Vladimir Gelman, Executive Director, M-Centre and Professor, European University of St Petersburg
• Andrey Zaostrovtsev, Lecturer, M-Centre and Professor, Higher School of Economics
• Pavel Usanov, Director, Hayek Institute and Reader, Higher School of Economics
• Pyotr Filippov, well-known politician, Duma Deputy 1990-93, Head of the Social and Economic Policy Analytical Centre, Presidential Administration