Anatoly Chubais Quotations

Killing the private property-that was the center of the Marxist economy and Marxist ideology. That was the center of the Lenin ideology.

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.

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.

The diversification of the people's demand could not be followed by the state apparatus.

Russia should support globalization. The Internet can develop in Russia in a very speedy way.

The Bolsheviks started not just on the killing of private property; they were trying to abolish money itself.

It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy.

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.

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.

You need to find somebody who will speak the same language. We understand that we couldn't have any kind of discussion without permission, without a legal framework behind it.

The kind of capitalism I hate most is crony capitalism, the friends who decide. These are things which should be killed in Russia.

There was no doubt that sooner or later we will fight. But we will fight not in the way of the dissidents' protests. We understood that we needed to be as professional as possible.

Bill Gates finds people in Russia to hire them to Microsoft. That's the Russian interest in this process.

For the whole of Western Europe, I know the business community quite good.

I am joining the government not from the academic position but from St. Petersburg city council.

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.

Money is the kind of instrument which is very speedily produced.

Private property is a very fundamental and very long-term institution.

There are no two countries with the same style of economic mechanism, with the same capitalism.

You're never able to please everybody, especially when you're transforming a country like Russia.

These guys were the real owners of the country, and for them to discuss with this young guy who becomes a member of the government was absolutely unacceptable.

I went to government for making these changes. I remember a number of guys among these important figures.

There was the scientific and technical progress which couldn't be predicted by the state.

During the election in 1989, there was the first Soviet election with alternative candidates to local government. I myself arranged special training for them.

I joined the city government, and we start to operate as the bureaucrats on the local level, so we were the only ones in the whole Russian team who were experienced in practical bureaucratic management in the complicated condition of 1990.

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.

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.

You're not always able to choose.

The red directors were one of the main political forces. Another force was the former Soviet ministers who lost everything because of the transformation of the Soviet Union to Russia.

The Americans have gone through 150 years of ups and downs, to pull themselves up out of the mud. After only 15 years, Russia is already in the process of liberating itself from the same thing.

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.

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.

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.

When you have a very low number of items in the economy, it could operate on the initial stage, and it leads to the developing of the economy.

To stop us, they want to scare us. They will never succeed, ... We will fulfill the goals she sacrificed her life for.

And yet we must be ready to get into next winter without major failures.

The system physically cannot cope with growing demand. Even if we invest today we are not going to see the result for the next three years.

There were hundreds with a criminal case against me, and not one of them led to a result. And I know why: You're speaking about the soul.

It was probably wrong on our part to agree to the size of the honorarium that we were offered. Yet, despite all the hue and cry, let us not forget that 95 percent of the honorarium was really transferred for charity purposes.

That's no way to talk with the government,

I'm criticized by the guys who tried to understand privatization as the economic process. They were wrong from the very beginning.

If you have 150 million people with no private property at all, it's very easy to manipulate; it's very easy to rule; it's very easy to go out.

In the next few days, we'll add the last touch to a purchase of gas turbine units with a total output of 200 MW to 250 MW of electricity.

In the capital market in Russia or in attracting foreign investment, distrust of all the foreign investors in Russia is a serious problem.

I consider these actions to be a huge tactical -- and I stress it -- a tactical mistake. I am sure that in five or three years it will be easily understood. Then the second wave of privatization will come.

colossal mistake, not only in relationship to us but to itself and the world at large.