Putin’s new cabinet of self-serving, public-sector careerists
Russia's new government players are looking further the state for the state rather than the nation
The new line-up of the Russian government, announced on Tuesday evening, means significant changes in how the world’s 11th-biggest economy by nominal GDP is run. President Vladimir Putin expects a new generation of senior officials, who have made their entire public-sector careers under his rule, to boost growth with efficient, tightly monitored and well-targeted government spending. Reality probably will soon make a dent in these expectations.
Previous Russian governments usually included a few highly qualified economists and economic managers but also lots of ballast: political loyalists and conservative ideologues who kept their jobs just because they irritated the opposition and the West, intelligence-service veterans, lobbyists for important industries and relatives of Putin cronies...
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