Tainted Transactions: An Exchange

National Interest, The, Summer, 2000 by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Anders Aslund, Marek Dabrowski, Peter Reddaway, Igor Aristov, Wayne Merry, Michael Hudson, David Ellerman, Steven Rosefielde

What is her alternative? In her book, Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe 1989 -- 1998 (1998), she revealed her ideological preferences by repeatedly citing the old-style Soviet communist Leonid Abalkin with sympathy in his criticism of liberal reformers. She seems to advocate U.S. assistance to such communists: "In short, donors, by equating Western-oriented Russians with reform agendas and traditionalist or communist Russians with anti-reform agendas, created stereotypes."

Wedel is patently contradictory. She criticizes Western consultants for their "[l]ack of the understanding of the Russian cultural context", but the particular persons she assails know Russia well. She attacks the major Western economic advisers in Russia for being both ineffective and too influential. You cannot have it both ways.

Similarly, she regrets large amounts of aid to consultants, but she has focused on one institution, namely, the Harvard Institute for International Development, which received less than 1 percent of total USAID assistance to Russia. She ignores the many other general contractors for USAID that received much more money.

The major problem, however, is Wedel's inability to evaluate the accuracy of her sources. She mainly relies on interviews, going around talking to admittedly many people, but she only records vicious and tendentious allegations often made by single individuals. She makes no attempt to check their truthfulness, ulterior motives or even whether her interviewees can know what they say. The Soviet Union was an empire of lies, and systematic lying remains common. Wedel seems unaware of this, revealing her limited understanding of the Russian cultural context.

Sometimes, though, Wedel seems aware of her absence of evidence, but instead of retracting she adds, fox instance, "... as well as a number of additional reports and sources in Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and Washington."

In a review of Collision and Collusion in Comparative Economic Studies, Jozef van Brabant, an economist who has persistently opposed radical market reform, concluded: "The book is marred by all too many other inaccuracies some of which are attributable to the author's ignorance."

From a personal perspective, I can say that Wedel's portrayal of my work is simply wrong. She alleges: "[dot{A}]slund seemed at once to represent and speak on behalf of American, Russian and Swedish governments and authorities." This statement is absurd. I left the Swedish foreign service in 1989. I served as economic adviser to the Russian government from November 1991 until January 1994. I have never been employed by the U.S. government. Although my employments have varied over time, they have never involved conflicts of interest, and I have always made clear what I am doing.

Wedel also complains that "he always presented himself [in op-ed articles] as an objective analyst, despite his many promotional roles." When working with the Russian government and later the Ukrainian government, I always mentioned that. Some may disagree with me, but I have hardly ever been accused of being unclear about what I stand for.