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Portland Press Herald
December 18, 2001

MAINER SUES HARVARD ECONOMISTS ; The two men inappropriately took control of Russia's first mutual fund, says Forum Financial Group's owner. (Excerpt)

Gregory Kesich

"Some observers believe that Russia's economic collapse was in part a result of the advice the Harvard economists gave, and point to the Forum story as an illustration of why the Russia Program failed.

As a result of Forum's sale of its share, the depository and the mutual fund ended up in the same hands, a violation of the Russian SEC policy that the Harvard economists helped to craft. That was typical of how the Harvard group worked, said Dr. Janine Wedel, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

In her book "Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe, 1989-98," Wedel argues that the Harvard economists did as much to prevent the creation of stable institutions in Russia as they did to foster them.

"Much of these so-called reforms were about privatization, which enabled key political and economic players to carve up the major jewels of Russian industry for themselves," Wedel said."

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