ABSTRACT
Russia has struggled to implement meaningful legal reforms from the early days of glasnost and perestroika more than two decades ago. The collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) occurred as a culmination of the long-sought desire by many of Russia’s educated population to jettison a bankrupt ideology and join the democratic West. They dreamed of Russia as a “civilized” society that would function “normally” with competitive elections, a free press, provision of social and political guarantees to its citizens, and above all rule of law, as opposed to rule by law. Rather than rule of law, democracy and an efficient market economy, however, what they experienced in the first decade following the collapse of the USSR were social and political chaos, the rapacious plunder of the prime assets of the former Soviet economy, crony capitalism, hyperinflation, massive unemployment, and a breakdown in the ability of the government to provide basic services.
