The directors thought, They understand nothing in the real economy, in real life. They read some stupid books, and they came from the moon to the earth, and maybe in one month they will disappear.

I joined the city government, and we start to operate as the bureaucrats on the local level, so we were the only ones in the whole Russian team who were experienced in practical bureaucratic management in the complicated condition of 1990.

The diversification of the people’s demand could not be followed by the state apparatus.

It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy.

For the whole of Western Europe, I know the business community quite good.

During the election in 1989, there was the first Soviet election with alternative candidates to local government. I myself arranged special training for them.

In 1995 the whole political situation was very complicated. I was the first deputy prime minister, and at the same time I had very low influence in the government.

These guys were the real owners of the country, and for them to discuss with this young guy who becomes a member of the government was absolutely unacceptable.

You’re not always able to choose.

Bill Gates finds people in Russia to hire them to Microsoft. That’s the Russian interest in this process.

I went to government for making these changes. I remember a number of guys among these important figures.

I don’t think Russia will follow the United States’s way. I don’t think Russia will follow the French way. I’m sure Russia will find its own way.

The kind of capitalism I hate most is crony capitalism, the friends who decide. These are things which should be killed in Russia.

I am joining the government not from the academic position but from St. Petersburg city council.

Private property is a very fundamental and very long-term institution.

There was no doubt that sooner or later we will fight. But we will fight not in the way of the dissidents’ protests. We understood that we needed to be as professional as possible.

The Bolsheviks started not just on the killing of private property; they were trying to abolish money itself.

I’m communicating with the directors of the Soviet companies, and I see that it is wrong, but when I go to the official discussions, they discuss we should change the color of the walls.

Killing the private property-that was the center of the Marxist economy and Marxist ideology. That was the center of the Lenin ideology.

You’re never able to please everybody, especially when you’re transforming a country like Russia.

If I just produce the transparent ideal accepted by the Western experts, a process of privatization which will be very good but never happen, that means nothing.

You need to find somebody who will speak the same language. We understand that we couldn’t have any kind of discussion without permission, without a legal framework behind it.

There was the scientific and technical progress which couldn’t be predicted by the state.

Money is the kind of instrument which is very speedily produced.

For the producers, there was no reason to produce. You get money, but you couldn’t use this money. For consumers, you could have money, but you have no way to use it because you go to the shop and see nothing.

There are no two countries with the same style of economic mechanism, with the same capitalism.

Russia should support globalization. The Internet can develop in Russia in a very speedy way.

Each university should have a Young Scholars’ Committee. I became the chairman of this Committee, and immediately it was permitted to have this plan officially adopted.

The directors thought, They understand nothing in the real economy, in real life. They read some stupid books, and they came from the moon to the earth, and maybe in one month they will disappear.

There is a state that is able to understand the demand in the economy. That state should use prices as an instrument for implementation of this understanding.

The red directors were one of the main political forces. Another force was the former Soviet ministers who lost everything because of the transformation of the Soviet Union to Russia.