ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the transition to market forces within the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and examines the performance of a sample of FSU republics under their various reform programmes. Analysts surveying the reform process currently underway in the economies of the FSU republics present a mixed picture of progress and achievement. The system of centralized decision-making within the FSU had given government ministries in Moscow virtually total control over the location, content and price of production as well as its distribution. The high degree of economic interdependence between Russia and its FSU partners is well illustrated by the case of Belarus. Belarus depends critically upon Russia and other FSU republics for imports in a range of key raw materials and products, including oil, gas, electricity, power cables, medicines, copper, aluminium, wood pulp and commercial fish products. In the states comprising the FSU, the reduction in defence expenditure also continued apace.
