As Russia’s 2018 presidential elections draw nearer, the government has prepared a socio-economic development plan forecast through 2025. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev presented it himself to President Vladimir Putin.
But neither has carefully studied a competing economic strategy developed — on Putin’s request — by former Finance Minister and current Strategic Development Center Chairman Alexei Kudrin.
What’s more, the Stolypin Club, which is run by Boris Titov, presidential business ombudsman, and which calls itself “an expert platform for market-oriented realists,” has prepared a third strategy. Anyone interested can download it, praise it, or criticize it.
Kudrin refused to publish his strategy until “it is approved by the president” and Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin classified the economic plan prepared by the government as “for official use only.”
The contents of those strategies are still unclear. But there is evidence to indicate what they do not include.
The annual growth potential of the Russian economy is limited to 1.5 percent – 2 percent. Not only do structural and demographic constraints hamper it, so do institutional limitations.