Translation from Fort Russ:
Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has pointed out the ineffectiveness of the program to reduce officials, which, on the contrary, led to the inflation of the state apparatus.
The Center for Strategic Research (CSR), headed by Alexei Kudrin, presented to Putin a new strategy for optimizing the powers of the authorities.
In it, experts at the Higher School of Economics point out that in the last 10 years attempts to reduce the number of officials and expenditures on them lead only to the fact that the state machinery is in fact growing. So, since 2003, the number of functions of ministries and services has doubled - from 5.3 to 10.4 thousand....
I still miss Viktor Chernomyrdin, former head of Gazprom (and Russian Prime Minister).
From a November 2010 (actually just minutes before we heard he had died) post:
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UPDATED:"Gazprom and Igor Sechin: The Dale Carnegies of Gas"
"We meant to do better, but it came out as always"Some other Viktorisms from Foreign Policy's obituary:
FP's Passport blog, Nov. 4, 2010:
Russia's Yogi Berra
Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 72. Best known in the West for co-chairing the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission on nuclear safety, which largely failed in its goal of promoting bilateral cooperation between Washington and Moscow, Chernomyrdin presided over an extremely turbulent period of Russian history, including the controversial privatizations of the mid-1990s and the First Chechen War....
...Chernomyrdin is survived by ("approximately") two sons and a wealth of unforgettable lines. Here are a few of the best:
On his background as energy minister: "I have grown up in the atmosphere of oil and gas."
On Russia's unstable party system: "Whatever party we establish, it always turns out to be the Soviet Communist Party."
On political efficiency: "We accomplished all items: from A to B."
On his critics: "If your hands are itchy, scratch yourselves in other spots."
On the future: "We will live so well that our children and grandchildren will envy us!"
On Ukraine's Orange Revolution: "American ears are sticking out everywhere."
On his family: "I have approximately two sons."
On dealing with the frequently uncooperative Duma: "Government is not the organ in which one uses his tongue only."
On women: "You can't scare a woman with high-heeled shoes."
On language: I can talk to anyone in any language, but I try not to use that instrument."
On the life of the mind: "I am far from thought."...
