Starting to reform Sberbank in 2007, German Gref said: "We must prove that elephants can dance." The elephant that went to the ex-minister and prominent liberal seemed hopeless. Sberbank was huge, but clumsy. Size was its main, if not its only advantage. From Soviet times, he inherited a crowd of queues, ferocious operationalists and antediluvian financial technologies. Five years ago, Gref set himself an ambitious task: to turn this old-regime institution into an advanced financial institution capable of entering the global financial elite. Indeed, teaching an elephant to dance would be easier...