The West's leaders fear a radical about-face in Russia under a Communist government. In fact, the real threat is that nothing will change. This contemporary inertia and dread of taking decisive action may ultimately prove to be a far more awful variant than any return to the *Boris Kagarlitsky is a researcher at the Academy of Sciences Institute for Comparative Politics. This article first appeared in the Moscow Times, September 22, 1998
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Inertia strikes back negligent or corrupt bureaucrats. itself is the problem. Only a few months ago, anyone who even