Special report on Russia
The Economist has a special report on Russia, Enigma Variations, in its November 29th issue.Russia is not the Soviet Union, but what is it? A recovering world power—or a corrupt oligopoly with a market economy of sorts?
It's great teacher background material, and you might find some of it appropriate for students. The report is divided into six sections.
- The Long Arm of the State
The projection of KGB power in Russia’s politics and economy has been a guiding principle of Mr Putin’s period in office. In the past the siloviki often had to rely on tax inspectors or the Federal Security Service (FSB) to get hold of assets. Now the crisis is creating new opportunities for what Mr Illarionov calls the “KGB-isation of the economy”. The result, he explains, could be a new, highly monopolistic system, based on a peculiar state-private partnership in which the profits are privatised by Kremlin friends and debts are nationalised. This will not take Russia back to a state-run economy, but it is likely to shift it further towards a corporatist state.
- Grease my palm (on corruption in Russia)
The size of the corruption market is estimated to be close to $300 billion, equivalent to 20% of Russia’s GDP. INDEM, a think-tank that monitors and analyses corruption, says 80% of all Russian businesses pay bribes. In the past eight years the size of the average business bribe has gone up from $10,000 to $130,000, which is enough to buy a small flat in Moscow.
- A matter of judgment (on the "deeply flawed" legal system)
Large companies rarely trust in a judge’s unprompted decision. In commercial courts a judge often takes a bribe for reaching a speedy conclusion. All this helps to explain why the European Court of Human Rights is overwhelmed with Russian cases, and why large Russian companies seek justice in London. The Yukos case showed that the courts have become part of the Kremlin machinery. The problem, says one Moscow lawyer, is that “the law in Russia is often trumped by money and always by high-level power.”
- The incredible shrinking people (on the declining population and immigration)
Most low-skilled migrant workers in Russia come from Central Asia. In the east of the country they are mainly Chinese. The precise figures are impossible to pin down because the vast majority of immigrants over the past decade have been illegal. Until recently they were treated much like serfs. They could not apply for work permits but had to rely on their employers, who would often impound their passports and refuse to pay them for their work. Thousands of corrupt police officers grew fat on the proceeds.
- The wild south (on the near abroad republics)
What happens in the Caucasus will define the future of federalism and of territorial integrity in the whole of Russia. The central government’s policy failures in the Caucasus are particularly clear when compared with the far more successful policy being pursued in Tatarstan, the largest Muslim republic, which was integrated into the Russian empire in the 16th century and has been at peace ever since. In the early 1990s oil-rich Tatarstan became a symbol of decentralisation in Russia. It was here that Yeltsin famously said: “Take as much sovereignty as you can swallow.” Under Mr Putin this phrase came to symbolise the weakness of Mr Yeltsin’s regime. In fact it was its strength. It is the centralisation of power and the colonial methods of suppression of dissent that are the biggest threat to that territorial integrity.
- Handle with care (on Russia's "dangerous future")
Russian experts, whatever their differences, all agree on one thing: these are unstable, unpredictable and dangerous times. As Mr Satarov of the INDEM think-tank observes, the biggest advantage of democracy is that it allows political systems to adapt to changing economic and political circumstances. That luxury is not available to Russia.
Labels: economics, political culture, politics, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 12:05 PM
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