"A decade has passed since a civil war almost erupted in this country," Boris Nemtsov recalled. "We have gone through dual power, inflation and two wars. Now the situation has changed radically: GDP has increased by 35 percent over the past four or five years, and not due to oil prices but thanks to the private sector. People in Moscow live better than in many European capitals. The rouble is stable and Russia's gold and currency reserves are at record highs."

Grigory Yavlinsky similarly does not deny positive changes. "Russia today has all factors of growth," he said in his speech. "And we have economic growth. But, in his view, it is "growth without development - like the growth we had in the Soviet years." "We had such growth for a long time and figures demonstrated good growth too, but we did not have qualitative growth."

However, the right-wing politicians also mentioned existing problems. According to Nemtsov, the municipal economy was not reformed in the past, and now it is a total shambles, just like the army.

"A considerable part of the population’s incomes do not go into investments," YABLOKO leader Yavlinsky observed. "The need for foreign investments may be questioned, but there are internal reserves which are also not invested in growth. Since 1995 all investments have been only declining. Certainly, today we have a positive trade balance, but if oil prices fell by one third, the trade balance would contract by 40%."

Nemtsov spoke also about excessive dependence of the Russian economy on oil prices. The possibilities offered by high oil prices in the world are not used in Russia, he said. "Neither an honest pension reform, nor banking reform are carried out and there are no real tax cuts.” Yavlinsky was also concerned about the dependency of the Russian economy on the "pipe", "The impulse from the raw-materials sector does not spread to other sectors. We don't have an independent judiciary, independent parliament or mass media, civil control over secret services, and now are witnessing a merger between business and the authorities. This system restricts our economic growth and should be dismantled."

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov spoke, as always, for a return to a planned economy.

In his opinion, the Russian government should select a scenario, which would enable the country to progress.

To consolidate the current economic growth, taxes, and in the first place the tax levied on the wage fund, should be cut, Nemtsov said. The SPS leader insisted on increasing taxes for the oil sector of the economy, while the rest would be allowed to pay a single tax; for instance an imputed tax.

Yavlinsky considers that it would be an anti-liberal action to increase taxes for the effectively operating oil sector, as it would reduce its effectiveness and add nothing to budget revenues. Yavlinsky considers that Russia needs, above all a number of laws envisaging "legalization of all deals, of everything that occurred before the mid-1990s, except assassinations."

According to Yavlinsky laws on lobbying, the financing of political parties and the mass media should be adopted and anti-monopoly legislation should be further developed. Yavlinsky noted: "The main risk is to leave everything as it is. This would mean that [Russia] will lag behind." According to Yavlinsky, soon the YABLOKO faction plans to submit to the Duma a package of draft laws containing amendments to a number of legislative acts to recognise all privatisation deals for the past ten years as lawful, including those pending in courts, but excluding murder cases.

Despite different views on the country's economy, the politicians agreed on one thing - all talk about revising privatisation results is inadmissible.

See also:

Privatisation in Russia

Nezavisymaya Gazeta, October 6, 2003