<P> The economic development of the country has been uneven geographically with the Moscow region contributing a very large share of the country's GDP . There has been a substantial rise in wealth inequality in Russia since 1990 (far more than China and other Eastern European countries). Credit Suisse has described Russian wealth inequality as so extreme compared to other countries that it "deserves to be placed in a separate category ." One study estimates that "the wealth held offshore by rich Russians is about three times larger than official net foreign reserves, and is comparable in magnitude to total household financial assets held in Russia ." Another problem is modernisation of infrastructure, ageing and inadequate after years of being neglected in the 1990s . </P> <P> By the 1970s the Soviet Union entered the Era of Stagnation . The complex demands of the modern economy and inflexible administration overwhelmed and constrained the central planners . The volume of decisions facing planners in Moscow became overwhelming . The cumbersome procedures for bureaucratic administration foreclosed the free communication and flexible response required at the enterprise level for dealing with worker alienation, innovation, customers, and suppliers . From 1975 to 1985, corruption and data fiddling became common practice among bureaucracy to report satisfied targets and quotas thus entrenching the crisis . Since 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to address economic problems by moving towards a market - oriented socialist economy . Gorbachev's policies had failed to rejuvenate the Soviet economy, though . Instead, Perestroika set off a process of political and economic disintegration, culminating in the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 . </P> <P> Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia had undergone a radical transformation, moving from a centrally planned economy to a globally integrated market economy . Corrupt and haphazard privatization processes turned over major state - owned firms to politically connected "oligarchs", which has left equity ownership highly concentrated . </P> <P> Yeltsin's program of radical, market - oriented reform came to be known as a "shock therapy". It was based on the recommendations of the IMF and a group of top American economists, including Larry Summers . The result was disastrous, with real GDP falling by more than 40% by 1999, hyperinflation which wiped out personal savings, crime and destitution spreading rapidly . </P>

One of the feature of free market economy is