Mongolia is almost as big as Western Europe, but has less than three million inhabitants. Immeasurable mineral resources lie dormant in its soil. The country has undoubted potential, but freedom is still young, democratic thinking foreign. It is less than twenty years since the Soviets left Mongolia. They had brought much cruelty to the traditionally nomadic country, but also cities, industries and public services. After their departure, almost everything came to a standstill. Foreign mining companies and corrupt government officials, for example, profit from the underground wealth, while a third of the Mongolian population, today's heirs of Genghis Khan, live below the subsistence level.