1991 Reports

Glastnost and Perestroika in Soviet-Third World Economic Relations

Valkenler, Elizabeth Kridl

The thrust of the post-1985 restructuring of Soviet economic relations with the Third World is clear. In response to the domestic economic crisis, and taking advantage of the reduced strategic competition with the West, Moscow has tried to ease the burden of supporting radical regimes and to expand normal commercial ties with the more stable and prosperous states. The so-called new thinking rejects basing economic relations with the developing countries on political criteria, which is in keeping with the campaign to de-ideologize Soviet international behavior and the market-type economic reforms at home.