Monday, February 13, 2012

Russian Private Property: Based on Fairness or Legality?

In a move to shore up popular support before the presidential election in 2012, Vladimir Putin called for a windfall levy on the dishonest privatisations of the 1990s. “We need to close the problems of the 1990s, of what, speaking honestly, was dishonest privatisation,” he told tycoons meeting at a congress of Russia’s big business lobby. He went on to say, “We need to establish the social legitimacy of private property itself and social confidence in business.”[1] The implication is that just acquisition is requisite to private property being recognized as legitimate, societally.


The full essay is at "Russian Private Property."


1. Catherine Belton, “Putin Calls ForWindfall Levy on “Dishonest” Privatisations,” Financial Times, February 10, 2012.