Institutions can matter less than the people who run them. Investors in Russia should be worried about the sacking of Alexei Kudrin, the finance minister, by a humiliated president Dmitry Medvedev. The latter has been pushed out of next year’s presidential race by Vladimir Putin. Mr Kudrin was the investor’s friend – and investors need friends in Russia. His dismissal leaves a vacuum in economic and fiscal policy that will not be filled by Mr Putin’s return to the Kremlin.
機構的重要性有時還不如執掌它們的人。受到羞辱的俄羅斯總統德米特里?梅德韋杰夫(Dmitry Medvedev)撤免了財長阿列克謝?庫德林(Alexei Kudrin),俄羅斯投資者應該對此感到擔心。梅德韋杰夫本人則已被弗拉基米爾?普京(Vladimir Putin)排擠出了明年的總統競選。庫德林是投資者的朋友——在俄羅斯,投資者需要朋友。他的去職給經濟和財政政策留下了真空,一個普京重返克里姆林宮所無法填補的真空。