40 million Russians are convinced that I am a scoundrel, a thief, a criminal or a CIA agent, who deserves to be shot, hanged or drawn and quartered.
The Bolsheviks started not just on the killing of private property; they were trying to abolish money itself.
The directors thought, They understand nothing in the real economy, in real life. They read some stupid books, and they came from the moon to the earth, and maybe in one month they will disappear.
It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy.
I am joining the government not from the academic position but from St. Petersburg city council.
Killing the private property-that was the center of the Marxist economy and Marxist ideology. That was the center of the Lenin ideology.
Each university should have a Young Scholars' Committee. I became the chairman of this Committee, and immediately it was permitted to have this plan officially adopted.
If I just produce the transparent ideal accepted by the Western experts, a process of privatization which will be very good but never happen, that means nothing.
Private property is a very fundamental and very long-term institution.
The diversification of the people's demand could not be followed by the state apparatus.
I don't think Russia will follow the United States's way. I don't think Russia will follow the French way. I'm sure Russia will find its own way.
You're not always able to choose.
Bill Gates finds people in Russia to hire them to Microsoft. That's the Russian interest in this process.
There are no two countries with the same style of economic mechanism, with the same capitalism.
During the Soviet era, private ownership was a crime punishable with up to five years in prison.
The Moscow energy system has never sustained such a load.
The kind of capitalism I hate most is crony capitalism, the friends who decide. These are things which should be killed in Russia.
There is a state that is able to understand the demand in the economy. That state should use prices as an instrument for implementation of this understanding.
You're never able to please everybody, especially when you're transforming a country like Russia.
During the election in 1989, there was the first Soviet election with alternative candidates to local government. I myself arranged special training for them.
For the whole of Western Europe, I know the business community quite good.
For the producers, there was no reason to produce. You get money, but you couldn't use this money. For consumers, you could have money, but you have no way to use it because you go to the shop and see nothing.
I'm communicating with the directors of the Soviet companies, and I see that it is wrong, but when I go to the official discussions, they discuss we should change the color of the walls.
In 1995 the whole political situation was very complicated. I was the first deputy prime minister, and at the same time I had very low influence in the government.
Money is the kind of instrument which is very speedily produced.
