Commentary: Winners and losers

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Abstract
It has almost become a cliché to talk of winners and losers in the transition to democracy in the former Soviet Union. Like the men in grey suits (the arms dealers) who did well out of the First World War, some have seen their fortunes improve beyond their wildest dreams. Some of the most extreme examples are in Russia where a small group of oligarchs effectively appropriated the assets of the state for their own private gain. At the same time, many of their compatriots have seen once secure jobs disappear, or more often continue but with payment in arrears or not at all, recalling the old joke that communism was where ‘you pretend to work and we pretend to pay you.’