The strong economic recovery reported in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for the past decade has been one of the most hopeful developments in the postcommunist space. However, this growth can obscure the high rates of poverty and inequality reported in many member countries of the CIS, particularly in rural areas and small towns, and among vulnerable groups. It can also obscure the fact that progress in economic reform has been rather uneven in most of the CIS. As a result, the high growth rates tend to reflect resource-based development patterns, in which foreign direct investment tends to be narrowly concentrated in extractive sectors, and from which the benefits of growth are distributed most unevenly across regions, sectors, and social classes.
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