Such 'moral' and 'ideological' issues do not disturb 'serious people'. The trouble is that the price of mistakes is becoming unbelievably high. The huge resources at the disposal of the IMF make it possible to 'stabilise' the situation should Russia collapse. But the neoliberal model of capitalism is unstable in principle. The IMF is now working simultaneously as an ideological centre and a 'fire brigade' except that the 'firefighters' themselves are dropping their cigarette butts in the forest.
Ideologues exist in order to ignore the real state of affairs.
In most countries where neoliberal 'reforms' have been 'successfully'conducted, similar problems have arisen. This is no accident, since monetarist programmes of such scope have not been implemented with such enthusiasm anywhere else. Like their Soviet predecessors, the ideologues of neoliberalism call for an orientation towards 'advanced experience' and 'positive examples'. As in the Soviet Union, all problems are ascribed to errors of particular officials while achievements are explained as the result of wise, consistent policies. A few years back, the Czech Republic was proclaimed an example of the consistent and successful implementation of reforms.