'..We must take into account a long-standing tradition of blaming outsiders for Russia's woes.''The unexpected collapse of the political and economic construction that had existed for many decades was a bombshell that cast a shadow on the reputation of specialists in Soviet economics and politics. The fact that the CIA did not see signs of the looming crisis and collapse was considered one of its great failures. Many Sovietologists reacted defensively to criticisms of their work—if we were mistaken, they seemed to say, it was because it was impossible to predict the economic crisis in the USSR. This group shared a widespread idea of the subjective nature of the causes of this event and the errors of the Soviet leadership since 1985.
This point of view is close to that of those who consider the collapse the result of international intrigue. In Russia, it is presented by those who believe in a world conspiracy against Russia. Accepting that position, it is not difficult to explain what happened in Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We must take into account a long-standing tradition of blaming outsiders for Russia's woes.
The widespread image of the CIA's demonic powers in Russia is the mirror image of Washington's conviction that the CIA showed total ineptitude about the events of the late 1980s and early 1990s in the USSR and then in Russia.'
- Yegor Gaidar,
Collapse of an Empire, page(s) 110 & 111
ContextEntrepreneurship - '..the calculation problem is much more general than has usually been realized.' - Dr. Peter G. KleinXXVI. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ECONOMIC CALCULATION UNDER SOCIALISMEconomic Calculation In The Socialist CommonwealthTo Nikolai Patrushev: '[Gaidar] warns Russia..''Very early in this process, I actually asked the C.I.A. to analyze examples of America financing and supplying arms to an insurgency in a country that actually worked out well. And they couldn’t come up with much.'
- Obama (
C.I.A. Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels, October 14, 2014)