Russian democrat, economist and the founder of Russian market economy Jegor Gaidar’ s gone.

He was 53 y.o.

More http://eksteins.wordpress.com/

Lai vieglas smiltis,

Juris

Some interesting posting from Russian internet community:

When the number of comments to Gaidar has exceeded 250, I have got a break in the discussion.

Please, quarrel among yourselves until blue faces, please do it, but I cannot read all this, it is above my comprehention..

Still, we are amazing people. When Soviets had taken everything away from them, forbidding any private initiative, any free expression of personality, when everything was belonged to the state, which decided: where and how much and what any person have to eat for dinner,  when a person had no any rights -  then, look, “all of us have been great”. See you , that’s the PEOPLE. And then scoundrel Gaidar came and “robbed our people” .

People-masochist. Rudely raped for decades by it’s “soviet authorities”, enjoying it, talking about “some care”.

But the most surprising thing: there are brains of very young people, who just cannot remember the Soviet system.

Would divide Russia by “wall” or linea, like Korea. One side let them live “socialism’s supporters”, another side – all others, some normal people.

But after some time we could see as ‘socialist system’ supportrs will dig to, like the Germans under the Berlin Wall, or trunk across the sea on air mattresses, like Cubans do.

© Andrej Mal’gin

Regards,

Juris

Yegor Gaidar
Russia’s free-market architect dies at 53
By DAVID NOWAK

Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW

Yegor Gaidar, who oversaw Russia’s painful economic transition from communism to the free market in the 1990s, died Wednesday, an aide said. He was 53.

Gaidar died unexpectedly of a blood clot at his Moscow-area home while he was working on a book early in the morning, his aide Valery Natarov told The Associated Press.

Gaidar—who served under Boris Yeltsin and as acting prime minister for six months in 1992—was loathed by ordinary Russians who saw their savings wiped out by the inflation that followed his sudden price liberalization that year. But he was praised by others for taking it upon himself to make painful but necessary changes to fix a dysfunctional communist economy.

He oversaw the so-called shock therapy reforms that opened prices that formerly were set by the state to the free market. That meant empty grocery stores restocked immediately but that hyperinflation put most goods out of reach of many consumers.

Gaidar, a graduate of the economics department of Moscow State University, was among a group of young liberals in the 1990s who have been cast as the architects of that decade’s economic and political chaos by Russia’s current leadership.

Former associates acknowledged Gaidar was hated by ordinary Russians who lost everything during the economic liberalization, but they said he succeeded in avoiding a greater catastrophe.

“He stood before the choice of civil war or painful reforms,” Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister under Yeltsin, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “He gave his life to avert civil war.”

Anatoly Chubais, Gaidar’s close associate in the reforms and a former deputy prime minister, described Gaidar in his blog as a friend and “an intellectual and moral leader for all of us.”

“He was a great man,” Chubais said. “Russia is very lucky to have had him in one of the most difficult times of its history. ... He saved the country from hunger, civil war and collapse.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin posted a Web site statement calling the death “a heavy loss for Russia, for us all.”

“We have lost a genuine citizen and patriot, a strong spirited person, a talented scientist, writer and expert. ... He didn’t dodge responsibility and ‘took the punch’ in the most challenging situations with honor and courage,” the statement said.

President Dmitry Medvedev issued a statement calling Gaidar a “daring, honest and decisive” economist who “evoked respect among his supporters and opponents.”

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who opposed Gaidar’s reforms, said in comments carried by the ITAR-Tass news agency that he “personally grieves” Gaidar’s death. But he also pointed to what he called the shortcomings of Gaidar’s policies.

“Gaidar went into politics with many hopes, but his plan was to (resolve all the problems) in one shot,” Gorbachev said.

In one of his final interviews, Gaidar spoke of his time in office.

“One of the main achievements in 1991-1993 was that we managed to avoid civil war,” he was quoted as saying by Novaya Gazeta, in an interview published Nov. 20.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party, and a contemporary of Gaidar as a State Duma deputy, expressed his admiration Wednesday.

“He had courage to stand up for his position, which he never concealed. He was a man of great erudition and could answer any question. He made a great contribution to Russia’s economic science. I am very sorry that such people die so young,” Zhirinovsky said.

Gaidar fell ill on a book promotion trip to Ireland in November 2006, a few days after the poisoning death in London of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko. Gaidar said he feared he had been poisoned, too, and pointed the finger at unidentified enemies of the Kremlin.

Andrei Lugovoi, Britain’s main suspect in Litvinenko’s death, who had headed Gaidar’s personal security service in the early 1990s, praised him on Wednesday.

“You can have different opinions about his views on economic policy and the reforms that were carried out, but one thing remains indisputable: He always acted in the country’s interests,” Lugovoi, now a member of Russia’s parliament, was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying.

Gaidar was part of a renowned family.

His grandfather, Arkady, was a Red Army hero of the Bolshevik Revolution who turned to writing children’s books that remain popular today. His father, Timur, was a military reporter with the Soviet Pravda newspaper. His daughter, Maria, is a liberal campaigner who has been arrested several times for taking part in anti-government rallies and now serves as an aide to Nikita Belykh, a regional governor. Gaidar is survived by his wife, three sons and his daughter.

A public memorial service was scheduled for Saturday at a funeral hall in a Moscow hospital.

___

Associated Press writers Lynn Berry and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report

http://www.tributes.com/show/Yegor-Gaidar-87405154

Thanks for these clips, as they are things I’d most certainly not otherwise come across.