Marshall I. Goldman

In the aftermath of the financial collapse of August 1998, it looked as if Russia's day as a superpower had come and gone. That it should recover and reassert itself after less than a decade is nothing short of an economic and political miracle. Based on extensive research, including several interviews with Vladimir Putin, this revealing book chronicles Russia's dramatic reemergence on the world stage, illuminating the key reason for its rebirth: the use of its ever-expanding energy wealth to reassert its traditional great power ambitions. In his deft, informative narrative, Marshall Goldman traces how this has come to be, and how Russia is using its oil-based power as a lever in world politics. The book provides an informative overview of oil in Russia, traces Vladimir Putin's determined effort to reign in the upstart oil oligarchs who had risen to power in the post-Soviet era, and describes Putin's efforts to renationalize and refashion Russia's industries into state companies and his vaunted "national champions" corporations like Gazprom, largely owned by the state, who do the bidding of the state. Goldman shows how Russia paid off its international debt and has gone on to accumulate the world's third largest holdings of foreign currency reserves--all by becoming the world's largest producer of petroleum and the world's second largest exporter. Today, Vladimir Putin and his cohort have stabilized the Russian economy and recentralized power in Moscow, and fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) have made it all possible. The story of oil and gas in Russia is a tale of discovery, intrigue, corruption, wealth, misguidance, greed, patronage, nepotism, and power. Marshall Goldman tells this story with panache, as only one of the world's leading authorities on Russia could.

Putin, Power, and the New Russia

Petrostate

In 1991, a small group of Russians emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union and enjoyed one of the greatest transfers of wealth ever seen, claiming ownership of 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.

Russian Reform Goes Awry

The Piratization of Russia

Zvi Gitelman

Zvi Y. Gitelman

Musya Glants

Provides up-to-date information and insights on the political, economic, and cultural situation of post-Soviet Jewry.

Jewish Life After the USSR

Collection of articles by several economists, biologists, and others interested in the problem.

The Economics of a Cleaner America

Controlling Pollution

The Soviet Union in the post-Brezhnev era confronts an economic disaster on a vast scale.

The Failure of an Economic System

U.S.S.R. in Crisis

A political commentator discusses the rise and fall of Mikhail Gorbachev, revealing Gorbachev as a reluctant reformer, who did nothing to counter the nation's overindulgence of heavy industry

Marshall I. Goldman

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