Harriman Institute takes issue with findings of Forbes article (09/22/96)

Harriman Institute takes issue with findings of Forbes article

Following is the text of a letter sent to James W. Michaels, the editor of Forbes magazine, by the director and associate director of The Harriman Institute at Columbia University. The letter is dated September 12.

Dear Mr. Michaels:

Paul Klebnikov has done you and your readers an enormous disservice. Had he done his homework, he might have spared you the embarrassment of his recent article on Ukraine. Instead, your readers are treated to outrageous claims and astounding illogic.

Bad students, like Mr. Klebnikov, don't read. Good students do. Good students would consult the writings of Ukraine specialists - such as Sherman Garnett, Anders Aslund, Elizabeth Pond and Zbigniew Brzezinski - and learn that all believe Ukraine to be politically stable, a model of ethnic amity and economically on the mend. Naturally, Ukraine has only just begun its transition, and many things could go wrong. But Mr. Klebnikov's arguments and evidence for a Bosnia scenario are just too preposterous to deserve serious commentary.

But one point has to be made, as it concerns the very mission of your magazine. Mr. Klebnikov supports Ukraine's "reintegration with Russia." Forget the fact that Russia is hardly the stable democracy Mr. Klebnikov thinks it is. Forget its dirty little war in Chechnya. And disregard the possibility that General Lebed, a self-styled "semi-democrat" with a flair for anti-Semitism, may be Russia's next president. Just consider the anti-capitalist logic behind Mr. Klebnikov's proposal.

Ukraine and Russia were fully integrated in Soviet times, but only because they were integral parts of a centrally planned economy. If both countries are to make a successful transition to capitalism, integration - and the revival of Soviet-era linkages - is the very last thing they should want.

Not surprisingly, pro-market reformers like Yegor Gaidar oppose Russia's economic integration with other states. Unlike Mr. Klebnikov, they appreciate that Russia's own economic transition is difficult enough, and that, as Russia and its neighbors move toward the free market, Russian and Ukrainian entrepreneurs will freely seek economically advantageous, cross-border ties anyway.

After all, that's how capitalism works. But we hardly need lecture one of the world's leading business journals on that score.

Best wishes,

Mark L. von Hagen
Director

Alexander J. Motyl
Associate Director