Remember Boris Yeltsin's arthritic last months in office? Well, a vigorous new wind has been blowing through the Kremlin these past several weeks. From the boldest tax reform of democratic Russia to making governors sackable, cutting Russia's notoriously overpowerful oligarchs down to size and putting pesky generals in their place, Putin is showing signs of an energy that is the more remarkable for its contrast to Yeltsin's later days. All in all, Vladimir Putin's accomplishments of recent days amount to no less than a firm message that the state works and will not be ridden roughshod over by all sorts of vested interests.The signals have not all been of the most freedom-respecting sort, it is true, a fact that has been made much of by a Western media paranoid about Russia being led by a former KGB man. The arrest of an unfriendly media figure and the dropping later of all charges is a case in point. For that matter, Putin's strikes against the oligarchs have been selective too, but that is inevitable in these early days. Whether the process will go further is hard to say, but the signs are promising. And there could have been no better early target to choose than Boris Berezovsky, the tycoon friend of Yeltsin's daughter who only recently looked like the most powerful man in Russia.Indeed, sanctimony aside, it is hard to see how Russia's daunting problems can begin to be addressed without evidence of a heavy hand. Considering that the heavy hand has so far been of the rich and powerful merrily plundering their country, the state reclaiming some of its authority may not be such a bad thing. As for Chechnya, that other favourite bugbear of the West, as tragic as the undoubted brutality there is, civil wars are not pleasant things and India at least can understand the plight of a besieged country trying to contain secessionism within its borders.It should surely soothe tender democratic sensibilities abroad that Putin's popularity ratings last month were an impressive 70 per cent.If he is to have anything like a successful tenure and his country to do well out of him, Putin must lay the foundation that he appears to be doing. His tax law is absolutely of the essence. The state's inability to raise revenue has long been behind much of Russia's recent travails. Now, with a flat new income tax rate of 13 per cent, the hope is that tax compliance will improve markedly. The corporate tax rate may soon be cut to 35 per cent. And one per cent of the income tax collections will be paid into a national social fund to create an efficient and transparent welfare system. The time is singularly propitious for Putin to be attempting these changes. Buoyed by the twin effects of buoyant oil revenues in the wake of high oil prices, and weaker import competition after the rouble devaluation, the economy is in better shape than for a long time. Lower tax rates may not by themselves prompt the rich to file returns, but the administration also is taking sensible steps towards enforcement, such as cross-checking employers' and employees' returns. Putin has begun remarkably well for someone about whom there were the direst doubts until only the other day. At last, someone is in charge in Moscow. More power to his elbow.
