POLITICS

Azhdar KURTOV

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Azhdar Kurtov, President, Moscow Public Law Research Center (Moscow, Russia)

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As distinct from all other states, in Turkmenistan certain products are distributed among the population free of charge. This is a source of pride among the top people, who see it as visual confirmation of their concern for the nation. Economics and common sense, however, say the opposite: the primitive practice of free supply of essentials speaks of a weakly developed market. Money, as a general equivalent of value, has been replaced with products in kind not only for the sake of fairness and social-oriented state policies.

This logic could partly fit the period of dramatic industrial decline and destroyed economic ties that came as soon as the Soviet Union left the stage. In 2006, however, when, according to the country’s leaders, the per capita GDP reached $8,500, the official motivation behind the free distribution system arouses doubts. The ideology of state paternalism embodied in one person, President Niyazov, is one of the system’s obvious underpinnings; on the other hand, the system is designed to cover up the inefficiency or, rather, conservatism of certain aspects of the country’s economic system.

In Turkmenistan, natural gas and electric power for everyday use are distributed free of charge within certain quotas, together with water and table salt (in limited quantities); some time ago flour too was part of………………

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