layard & parker
19.04.03 5:53 p.m.

�The biggest political problem caused by the vacuum of power was that no one took any notice of laws or decrees. In the West it is taken for granted that once a law has been passed, it will be implemented, or should be. Not so in Russia. �I don�t see decrees from Moscow� one official said in Tatarstan, a republic 500 miles east of the capital. �Perhaps they�re sent and registered in the office somewhere. We�ve really forgotten about this kind of thing. We only carry out the decrees of our president� [i.e. Tatarstan�s]. The phenomenon was not confined to the rebellious republics, such as Tatarstan, anxious to thumb their noses at the central government in the Kremlin.�

Praise for the Coming Russian Boom by Richard Layard & John Parker, The Free Press; New York, NY; 1996