Watershed Russian reformer dead

Yegor Gaidar, one of the central figures of post-Soviet Russian history and leader of the economic reform movement early on in Yeltsin's first term has died. Here are a couple of obits- from the FT "Russian economist who shocked old guard dies" & the NY Times "Russia's Market Reform Architect Dies." Gaidar leaves behind an extraordinarily complicated legacy, but has always been a provocative thinker and a central fixture in the Russian economic policy scene.

Also well worth checking out is this piece of analysis, also in the FT, examining the state of play within Russia's highly dynamic power elite and what it might mean for the future: "Russia: Shift to the shadows."