In 1991, a small group of Russians emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union claiming ownership some of the most valuable petroleum, natural gas and metal deposits in the world. By 1997, five of those individuals were on Forbes Magazine's list of the world's richest billionaires. These self-styled oligarchs were accused of using guile, intimidation, and occasionally violence to reap these rewards. This revelatory work examines the structure of the Russian economy and considers why it collapsed in 1998 and why it began its recovery in 1999. It also provides a close examination of the Russian oil industry and the oligarchs who control it and who have now decided to go "legitimate".
Author(s): Marshall I. Goldman
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 297
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of illustrations......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Russia's financial buccaneers: the wild and woolly East......Page 12
Setting the stage: the Russian economy in the post-communist era......Page 23
The legacy of the czarist era: untenable and unsavory roots......Page 44
It's broke, so fix it: the Stalinist and Gorbachev legacies......Page 56
Privatization: good intentions, but the wrong advice at the wrong time......Page 82
The nomenklatura oligarchs......Page 109
The upstart oligarchs......Page 134
FIMACO, the Russian Central Bank, and money laundering at the highest level......Page 167
Corruption, crime, and the Russian Mafia......Page 188
Who says there was no better way?......Page 206
Confidence or con game: what will it take?......Page 221
Notes......Page 256
Bibliography......Page 279
Index......Page 290
