ABSTRACT
The increasing autonomy of Russia was paralleled by demands from the republics. The core problem of the Russian economy in transition was the shortage of capital for investment in the new private sector. An important feature of the new Russian economy was the prominence of the criminal element. Private property in land, one of the most important sources of capital in a market economy, was unavailable because of the opposition of the Communists and some nationalist groups. The government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was the first to have a center-left membership and to bring Communists into key positions, most importantly the responsibility for economic policy. The new prime minister's background was unlike that of any of his predecessors of the Yeltsin era. The weakness of Gorbachev and the Soviet center after the collapse of the August coup enabled Yeltsin to pursue his reform program more aggressively.
