BEAT THEM UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES….

Russia is adrift. Six years have passed since the launch of economic reforms, and still the long-awaited turnaround does not occur. Fiscal policy is a shambles, with taxes unpaid, scofflaws unpunished, and obligations unfunded. Privatization has been a perversion, a marriage of state power to private interest. Much of the country’s industrial strength, financial wealth, and government power are in the hands of a kleptocracy that answers to no one. Inflation is held in check only by ruinous interest rates, the highest in the world.

And what is President