Sergei Guriev — Russia’s Indefensible Military Budget

Another clueless Russian economist, who got promoted to Sciences Po.

Oh, wait. Seems that not all Russian economists are clueless.

When then-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin – who had presided over budget surpluses, helped to build up the reserve fund and cut state debt considerably – argued that Russia could not afford such an increase, he was fired. The plan was adopted soon after.

At least Russia seems to be jettisoning some of it neoliberal camp-followers that would rather balance the books, or, better, run a surplus, and pamper the oligarchs, rather than have a strong and prosperous society by using available policy space effectively.

Now all that Russia needs to do is to realize that it can "afford" not only to be strong but also prosperous by using its policy space to fund domestic priorities like education, healthcare, social welfare, R&D, and infrastructure, too.

The rest of this post also gives insight into why the liberal faction is politically so minuscule in Russia. They would rather be "fiscally disciplined," only feeding the oligarchs job creators and being a good vassal, rather than have a good society that is also a great power.

Project Syndicate
Russia’s Indefensible Military Budget

Sergei Guriev | former rector of the New Economic School in Moscow, and currently Professor of Economics at Sciences Po