Post-Soviet Experience Shows There Are No Easy Solutions for Caucasus, Central Asia
Ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economies in Central Asia and the Caucasus are still defined more by potential than by achievement. Lacking a blueprint for the transformation of centrally planned communist systems into sound market frameworks, states have struggled to find the balancing point between social stability and economic necessity. Initial illusions have been tempered by the harsh reality that there is no painless solution to regional economic problems.
"There was an expectation [early on] that once central planning was lifted, these countries would become self-contained economies
Alec Appelbaum is a contributing editor to EurasiaNet.
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