Trust me, most of former eastern block hasn’t been much better. Mine country certainly lacked it. There were no laws against most of the stuff that happened. You took a loan and had no collateral? Perfectly fine.

90s was the second biggest theft of last century(after commie nationalization/theft). All wealth concentrated in hands of few who then use the economic power as a leverage over politics.

I am pretty sure we got saved by EU, otherwise whole eastern block would be similar to Ukraine/Russia/Moldavia. EU forced a lot of laws and reforms that really helped and were needed.