The Heritage Foundation’s economic-freedom listings, that is. They’re ranked 134th out of 150 countries, behind the likes of Pakistan and Cambodia. Anyone who reads The Russia Blog regularly, knows that’s simply not accurate. It may not be the U.S., or even France or Germany, but economic expansion, belief in capitalism and growth in consumer culture have been phenomenal. This guy is crying foul, and he’s got the goods to back it up:
In the same year that the Heritage Foundation claims that Russia backslid on democracy and economic freedom, global investors cast a vote of confidence in the country by pouring over $55 billion into the Russian economy. Many scholars and pundits can try to dismiss this record as a lucky break caused by high commodity prices and a glut of global liquidity, but one need not look very far to find some very large holes in this argument.
(p.s. The sign on the window above says “STARBUCKS COFFEE.” Actually, it says “STARBAKS COFFEE,” but that’s as close as you can get in Cyrillic.)
