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Article: The best Soviet Union; one with Gorbachev running foreign policy and the republics running competing pro-market economic policies. (editorial)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 1, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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One with Gorbachev running foreign policy and the republics running competing pro-market economic policies
THEY are rioting over vodka in Chelyabinsk, panicking over cigarettes in Moscow: early warning, most Russians assume, of an autumn of discontent, as food grows scarcer and nationalists grow more militant. Hardly a time, you might think, for optimism about the Soviet Union. Yet this week's deal between Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin changes the outlook. Thanks to a slice of luck and the arrival of competitive politics, perestroika may be about to enter a purple patch.
The slice of luck is the rise in the price of oil, the main Soviet export. ...