Russian president Vladimir Putin faces the mind-boggling imperative of having to integrate Russia's economy with that of the world economy. At the same time, it involves a shedding of old mindsets and long-held notions of the Soviet economy. Russia now has to work towards a three-pronged approach - ensure its territorial integrity; create favourable conditions for economic recovery and growth and yet preserve the civil society and the rights and freedoms that all Russians have come to enjoy.
