This book provides a comprehensive overview of Russia’s difficult economic transition from a command economy since the early 1990s. It covers the financial crisis of August 1998 and the global financial crisis a decade later. Key subjects covered include economic transition, privatization and liberalization; changes in land ownership and agriculture; energy; foreign direct investment; economic stabilization; and economic performance. Russia is well endowed with raw materials, especially oil and natural gas; this book argues that in some ways this has not helped Russia’s attempts to become a more diversified and high-tech economy.
Overall, the book demonstrates how much the Russian economy has changed in the period. It continues - and adds to – the overview of developments in the author’s The New Russia (2002), and is the companion volume to Political Developments in Contemporary Russia (2011) - both published by Routledge.
Introduction and summary 1. Economic Transition 2. Liberalization: The 'virtual economy'; the enrichment of the minority (oligarchs); crime and corruption; the 1999 McKinsey Global Institute report; price liberalization; foreign trade (including liberalization, capital flight and the WTO). 3. Privatization in the non-agricultural sectors: The first stage of privatization (1 October-1July 1994); developments after the first stage (including the Yukos saga, the 'shares-for-loans' scheme and the furthering of state control through consolidation); natural gas and Ukraine; Belarus and Russian energy supplies. 4. Agriculture: Laws and decrees relating to private land ownership; the Nizhny Novgorod experiment; the new Land Code; the development of private farming. 5. Direct foreign investment: Volume; production-sharing agreements; developments in oil and gas; developments in policy; outward direct foreign investment. 6. Macroeconomic stabilization: Hyperinflation and how it was conquered (including foreign aid and debt and the role of the IMF); the financial crisis of August 1998; the global financial crisis. 7. Dmitri Medvedev: thoughts on the economy. 8. Economic performance.
Biography
Ian Jeffries is Honorary Professor in the Department of Economics and Centre of Russian and East European Studies at Swansea University, UK. His recent publications include A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, 2nd edition; The Balkans: a Post-Communist History and numerous books in the series, Guides to Economic and Political Developments in Asia (all published by Routledge).
Praise for the author's previous publications, also published by Routledge.
The New Russia: a Handbook of Economic and Political Developments, (Routledge, 2002)
'...a valuable source of detailed information and, above all, for Western views of Russia', Economic Journal, 2003
A Guide to the Socialist Economies (1990).
`Jeffries has produced a useful reference guide that will doubtless become a standard in the field and a valuable addition to academic libraries' - Journal of Comparative Economics, 1991.
'... a very welcome addition to the library of publications on the socialist world ... more than a textbook - it is also a reference book and a guide ... Jeffries covers a vast area. It is a truly formidable task to catch up with all the changes that are taking place in these countries, and the author does it with great success', International Affairs, 1990.
The Balkans: a Post-Communist History (Routledge, 2007)
'an extremely useful and handy introduction to a complicated but fascinating and important subject. The book provides a wealth of easily digestible information on the post-communist period, but in addition to that it provides a full historical introduction to each state it deals with.' - Richard Crampton, University of Oxford
'...a lucid account of the development of a region which for over a century has produced more history than could be consumed locally. Simple without being simplistic, analytical yet not overbearing, enlightening but not scholastic, it is a must read for scholars and laymen alike.' - Petya Nitzova, University of Oklahoma
'a highly ambitious work … that covers nine countries, about a dozen different ethnicities, several civil wars and a time period of roughly two millennia … We may be sure that Bideleux and Jeffries have not said the last word on this troubled corner of the world’ Susanne Hillman, University of California San Diego, in Australian Slavonic and East European Review, 2007.
