Ryzhkov Calls President Medvedev's Mid Term Performance "Dismal"
Former State Duma Deputy and Echo Moscow host, Vladimir Ryzhkov writes in today’s Moscow Times that, four years on from his landslide election to the Presidency, President Medvedev’s midterm results are "dismal".
He refers to Medvedev’s “Four I’s” speech delivered at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum in February 2008, just weeks before he was elected President suggesting it “underscores the huge gap between his absolutely meaningless, empty slogans and the sorrowful state of affairs in Russia”.
To sum up Medvedev’s Four I’s, says Ryzhkov, “institutions are corrupt to the core, the infrastructure is falling apart, the country’s homegrown innovators are abandoning Russia in droves, and investment is evaporating. Perhaps it would be better to redefine his Four I’s to better reflect Russian reality: illusion, inefficiency, instability and incompetence.”
Ryzhkov quotes the World Economic Forum's latest annual Global Competitiveness Report, noting that Russia dropped 12 spots to 63rd (of 133 countries ranked); Russia fell behind Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia in a ranking of economic openness.
He highlights that “the country’s rating based on the development of a fair and impartial judicial system — Medvedev’s pet project — dropped from 109th place to 116th. Protection of property rights ... fell to an equally shameful 119th place”.
On foreign direct investment, Ryzkhov notes the decline in Russia in 2009 was 41% compared to 39% globally; he says: “With Russia’s low quality of government institutions, aging infrastructure and high cumulative foreign debt, Russia will not see an influx of foreign investment anytime soon.”
Read the full article here.