Change in Putin's Russia Power, Money and People

by Pirani, Simon

• ISBN13: 9780745326900
• ISBN10: 0745326900
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-15
• Publisher: UCP

Summary

Simon Pirani investigates the interaction of power, money and people in Russia during the presidencies of Vladimir Putin and his successor Medvedev. Profiling the Putin team, including contingents from the security services and pro-market economic "reformers", Pirani argues that the presided over during the oil boom was one-sided. The gap between rich and poor widened. Now the boom is over, inequalities will well as explaining Russia's economic trajectory, the book provides a unique account of the social movements that are working against authoritarian government to change Russia for the better.

Author Biography

Simon Pirani is author of The Russian Revolution in Retreat, 1920-24: Soviet Workers and the New Communist Elite (2008), and of books and articles on post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine. He is a journalist with a lifelong commitment to the labor movement, and a former editor of the British miners' union journal. He is currently senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and co-author of Russian and CIS Gas Markets and Their Impact on Europe (2009).

Table of Contents

List of photographs, figures and tables	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction: Putin's Russia in deep focus	p. 1
From Gorbachev to Yeltsin	p. 16
Soviet and post-Soviet elites (1986-91)	p. 16
Yeltsin's Russia and the world (1992-95)	p. 23
From Yeltsin to Putin	p. 32
The weak state and the oligarchs (1995-96)	p. 32
Society shattered	p. 39
Yeltsin's second term and the financial crash (1996-99)	p. 43
Power and Money: The Economic Foundations	p. 47
How the economy changed	p. 47
The shifting balance of oil power	p. 53
Russia and the resource curse	p. 58
Power and Money: The State, Oligarchs and Oil	p. 62
Enter the men from the KGB (1999-2002)	p. 62
The state takes charge of oil and gas (2002-07)	p. 71
The 'energy weapon'	p. 84
Power and Money: From Oil Boom to Bust	p. 87
The oil boom (2002-07)	p. 87
The world crisis takes its toll (2007-09)	p. 99
Power and People: How Russia is Ruled	p. 111
The war that made Putin	p. 111
'Managed democracy' and its limits	p. 118
People and Money: Human Development Dilemmas	p. 133
The demographic and health crisis	p. 133
The widening gap between rich and poor	p. 137
Social policy under Putin	p. 145
People: Parties, Unions and NGOs	p. 148
The political opposition	p. 151
Movements for human rights and the environment, and other NGOs	p. 155
What about the workers?	p. 160
People: Grassroots Movements	p. 173
The welfare benefits revolt	p. 173
Housing rights action	p. 177
An array of causes	p. 185
Conclusions	p. 191
Notes	p. 198
Glossary of Russian words and abbreviations	p. 216
Chronology	p. 217
Further reading	p. 220
Index	p. 222
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