I think you are oversimplifying the Russian situation, and Boroda may be overcomplicating it. I'm not there, and of course what we see of the situation here in the US is colored by our media's coverage (when there is any), so my views may not be 100% correct. But from what I can piece together, its simply a matter of point of view.
When the reformers came to town in the former USSR, they had a vision of remaking Russia and her sattelite countries into their version of the US. The problem is, the politicians stuck their heads out into the sun, and the people stuck their heads out into the sun, and decided they didnt like the look of something "new", so they tried to go back to doing things exactly as they always had done them. Only the system didnt support that anymore, and it fell apart. No one knew how to operate under the new rules, and didnt bother to learn more than the basics. People in the govt. had others to explain and interpret the rules FOR them as they went along, and so profited at the expense of the rest even more than they had under the old system. Under the old system, at least they had limits, people understood how things worked and noticed if you went over the line. Now no one knows where the lines are.
Here's a way of looking at it. Its like someone at the very top said "You all must have the freedom to travel where you wish, so we give you all a new car." But the people dont know how to drive the new cars. Then the lower level govt. officials have people who DO know how to drive the cars drive them around, instead of teaching the average person to drive. Then they tell the average person "Oh, did the govt. not tell you? You owe a tax on your new car." And they pocket the money. Then they tell the people "Oh, you dont know how to drive your new car? Then we will take it so it does not bother you. We will give you one of the old cars that you DO know how to drive in its place." Only the old cars take diesel and the new cars take gasoline. They stopped producing diesel and only make gasoline now. So the old cars are useless. Then the politicians sell the new cars they collected to someone else, and pocket THAT money as well. End result? Someone meant well and tried to help, but now everyone at the bottom is worse off than they were before.
Again, I could be way off.
