Modernizing Russia The Medvedev Way

According to WSJ, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev's call to his countrymen to limit the consumption of oil goes back to a tradition of imposing national stricture from the times of Czar Peter the Great. But politically more important is the fact that his attack on inefficient state-owned corporations is also an attack on predecessor Vladimir Putin's centralization of economic power.

Putin, however, may have signed off on this, realizing that his politically useful policies may not have been economically viable during the financial crisis. Russia's Prosecutor General has started 22 criminal cases against some state corporations, showing that the government, and Medvedev, means business this time around. The most important struggle, however, will be in attracting foreign investment.