What Does Russia Need?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 1, 1998 / 10:14 AM EDT / CBS

As President Clinton meets with President Yeltsin, some are asking: What is the impact for the United States of the crisis in Russia?

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation and an expert on Russia, says it is still important for President Clinton to be in Russia today. But she adds that he must "be open-minded and...listen to the range of political and economic views in Moscow."

She cautions that it is necessary to keep the situation in perspective, keeping in mind that 75 percent of the Russian population is below the poverty level and the country is in the middle of a depression.
"I think we shouldn't ask of Russia what we won't tolerate from ourselves," explains vanden Heuvel. "For example, imagine if this country was in a great depression, as it was in 1933. Why would we then tighten government spending, tighten credit, and raise taxes?"

Cookie-cutter reforms demanded by institutions like the IMF may not be what Russia needs, she adds.

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"We should allow Russia to find a new economic course and not condemn it as back to the Soviet period, because I think there are respected Russian politicians who are patriots which will revive production and improve lives."

If Russian cannot get back on economic and financial solid ground?

"It's a matter of dropping the dogmas about what...economic development means," vanden Heuvel asserts. There are ways other than the IMF way. There is an enormous amount of money in Russia... If we would allow the state...some role in restoring the Russian economy, then we would see a different kind of Russia."

She says the state has become corrupt because of the privatization policies under Yeltsin. "But now," she adds, "there is a possibility of a coalition government, and that's what Americans are seeing, this intense bargaining under way.

"What is clear is that the Yeltsin era is over... If you can have an America that is willing to allow Russia to follow a different course to find its own way, you will then see a better Russia, and one that won't be as dangerous."