After a nine-hour flight from New York to Moscow, all I wanted to do was to shower. But first I had to clear Russian passport control. My shower was to be delayed -- for an hour and 20 minutes.

I would have gotten through this annoying procedure more quickly had I chosen a different line to wait in. While all lines moved slowly, mine was the only one unlucky enough to be halted when the government official "serving" it decided it was time for him to quit for the day. With about a dozen of us still waiting for him to check our passports, this official simply closed his booth and walked away. Neither explanation nor apology was offered.

A similar experience awaited me when I had to clear Russian passport control for my return flight to New York.

But the time in between these two encounters with state bureaucracy was fascinating.

I traveled to Russia a few weeks ago -- under the auspices of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation -- to deliver several lectures on America's experience with antitrust regulation. (I warned Russians to avoid such regulation, but I doubt that my advice will be heeded.) It was my first trip there and I wasn't sure what to expect.

While most residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia's two largest cities, clearly are less affluent than are typical residents of New York and Pittsburgh, the difference was less than I'd anticipated. Economic activity boomed all around me in Russia. New restaurants, wine bars, jazz clubs, upscale clothing retailers and other modern stores lined the main avenues. New Toyotas, Hyundais, Lexuses, Mercedeses and Cadillacs crowded those avenues. (Traffic in Russia -- especially in Moscow -- is horrible. It is an unhappy symptom of a happy fact: Russia's significant economic growth.)

The food was unfailingly good. My favorite was scarfed down at an Uzbek restaurant.
 
The food was also surprising. Sushi and Thai cuisine are available everywhere and the quality is spectacular.

My hotel in Moscow was a short walk from Red Square. Other than a gym, it offered all the amenities and comforts that I expect at any decent hotel in Manhattan.

And walking to Red Square -- which, by the way, bore that name long before the curse of communism descended upon Russia -- I passed countless people dressed as though they'd carefully studied the latest issues of Vogue and GQ.

There's no question that -- at least in Moscow and St. Petersburg -- Russia has advanced economically by leaps and bounds since the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. My sense that this is the case was confirmed by seeing photos of these cities from 20 years ago and talking to many Russians who well remember what life there was like under the Soviets.

And all this economic growth seems to have a momentum of its own. That is, this growth seems to me to have advanced so far that any effort to return Russia to central planning would simply not be tolerated by the populace. Boris and Olga are now accustomed to dining on sushi, shopping at Hugo Boss and going to the multiplex to watch the latest action movie from Hollywood.

While Lenin would loathe it, Adam Smith would love it.

Still, my optimism about Russia's future is guarded. While I was there, the head of the Russian mafia was gunned down near his apartment -- which, if I understand correctly, is a short walk from the Kremlin. This shooting was a reminder that the rule of law in Russia isn't as well-established as it is in the U.S. and other Western nations. Gangsters and corruption rule in Russia in ways that aren't tolerated in the U.S.

Will the civilizing effects of commerce promote a greater demand among Russians for a strong and expansive rule of law -- an ethos in which raw power and personal connections are trumped by respect for private property? Will greater economic integration with other nations around the globe entice Russians to lose their fascination with strongmen such as Vladimir Putin who act as though the strength of Russian society comes only from the strength of the Russian state?

Just how these questions will be answered over the next few years will determine whether Russia continues to grow and become increasingly a nation of free men and women or if that growth will grind to a halt, overwhelmed by nationalism and authoritarianism.

I'm betting on -- and fervently hoping for -- the former.
 
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This article was published by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review online on 29 September 2010.

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