PRINT INTERVIEWS AND MENTIONS (Selected)
The Washington Times
February 13, 2001.
Plugging the AID pipeline. (Excerpt)
James Bovard
"Elsewhere, U.S. aid can bring out the worst in recipient nations. To see an example of how U.S. and other foreign aid fueled the fires of corruption and crony capitalism in Russia, see Janine Wedel's excellent book "Collision and Collusion" (1998). The Justice Department is suing Harvard University and several individuals for $120 million for defrauding an AID program in Russia."
Full text of the article available in PDF format.
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The Washington Times
March 28, 2000.
Taking measure of the aid pit. (Excerpt)
Arnold Beichman
The National Interest article in the spring 2000 issue is by Janine R. Wedel, a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh graduate school of international affairs. Her article is titled ominously: "Tainted Transactions: Harvard, the Chubais Clan and Russia's Ruin." Professor Wedel ought to be invited by Congress to testify about her explosive bill of particulars.
As an anthropologist, she has applied her specialty to dissecting how financial aid to Russia was diverted to secret bank accounts while Western advisers, notably Harvard faculty members, among others, stood by and, at best, did nothing to stop the looting.
In her expose, Miss Wedel introduces the concept of "transactorship" so as better to illuminate the murky dealings that have been going on since the Soviet Union sank into oblivion in 1991. By "transactors" Professor Wedel means "players in a small, informal group who work together for mutual gain, while formally representing different parties." The adjectival phrase, "cozy manner" applies to the transactors, American advisers and Russian representatives, whose "activities ran directly counter to the stated aims and of the U.S. aid program in Russia," writes Professor Wedel. Transactors may also have been involved in criminal activities.
Full text of the article available in PDF format.
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The Washington Times
July 19, 1999.
Russia in line for more aid from IMF Critics question where cash goes. (Excerpt)
David R. Sands
"Considering the track record here, I think any future loans should be looked at very, very carefully," said Janine R. Wedel, who has recently completed a book on Western attempts to use aid to build free markets in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Ms. Wedel, in an analysis of the U.S.-Russian aid program for the Cato Institute, wrote: "While professing simply to support reform, U.S. policies afforded one group a comparative advantage and allowed much aid to be used as a tool of that group. . . .
"That feels familiar to Russians raised in the communist practice of political control over economic decisions - the quintessence of the discredited communist system," she wrote.
Full text of the article available in PDF format.
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The Washington Times
August 27, 1997.
EDITORIAL
What did Harvard teach the Russians? (Excerpt)
AID cancelled the HIID project in May, alleging that Mr. Hay and Mr. Shleifer violated its conflict-of-interest rules, which they deny. Harvard removed Messrs. Hay and Shleifer from the project, declaring its "zero tolerance for conflicts of interest, actual or perceived." Not surprisingly, a General Accounting Office report concluded that AID had exercised "minimal oversight." Less charitably, George Washington University research professor Janine Wedel, an early critic of the HIID project, told the Journal, "AID gave Harvard a blank check. ... They opened themselves to all sorts of shenanigans."
Full text of the article available in PDF format.
