Now that Russia has given up its ridiculous ambition to become an advanced capitalist nation in the space of a historical nano-second, Russians can revert to their favourite pursuits: relieving their anguish with sardonic humour and suspecting that their plight is the result of a grand conspiracy.
Not that these pastimes - perfected throughout years of deprivation and communist party politicking - ever really died out. But the strength of the liberal argument did worry a small minority for a short time in the early 1990s that the market might really deliver up what it promised and the jokes would have to be changed. They should not have been concerned.
A combination of Russia's inefficient political system, the desire of a small elite to get rich quick at the nation's expense and the inability of the IMF and others to understand how a state-planned economy can be reformed - even had its...
