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.