| Headline: Putin treads warily on road to reform Source: Euromoney Date: September 2001 Author: Ben Aris President Putin’s has pushed through a swathe of reforming laws, spearheading his drive to liberalization. But implementation will not be easy. Nor can it be assumed that the liberals will stay in the ascendancy. Business oligarchs and the conservatives are asserting themselves as Putin struggles to pick a way through conflicting interests.
In his April state-of-the-nation speech, Putin said that he wanted to push through reform of the legal system, cut red tape and liberalize land ownership. All these goals have been at least partly met and many more as well, dealing with improving the efficiency and accountability of government. Some outdated Soviet laws, such as the labour code which has been untouched since the fall of the iron curtain, have been ditched. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||