Change in Putin's Russia

Simon Pirani

Description

This is an investigation into the interaction of power, money and people in Russia during the presidencies of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev.



Profiling Putin's team, including his security services and pro-market economic 'reformers', Simon Pirani argues that the growth during the oil boom was one-sided. The gap between rich and poor widened. Now the boom is over, this problem has only grown.



As well as explaining Russia's economic trajectory, the book provides a unique account of the social movements that are working against an increasingly authoritarian government to change Russia for the better.
List of figures and tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Putin's Russia in Deep Focus

1. From Gorbachev to Yeltsin

2. From Yeltsin to Putin

3. Power and money: the economic foundations

4. Power and money: the state, oligarchs and oil

5. Power and money: from oil boom to bust

6. Power and people: how Russia is ruled

7. People and money: human development dilemmas

8. People: parties, unions and NGOs

9. People: grass-roots movements

Conclusions

Chronology

Glossary of Russian words and abbreviations

Further reading

Index

Sujets

• Economic Policy
• Public Policy
• Political Science
• General officer
• Political economy
• Russia
• Central
• General
• Russie

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781849643696
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

CHANGE IN PUTIN’S RUSSIA

Change in Putin’s Russia Power, Money and People

Simon Pirani

First published 2010 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright © Simon Pirani 2010

The right of Simon Pirani to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN ISBN

978 0 7453 2691 7 978 0 7453 2690 0

Hardback Paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufactur ing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. The paper may contain up to 70% post consumer waste.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Curran Publishing Services, Norwich

Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

CONTENTS

List of photographs, figures and tables Preface Acknowledgements

Introduction: Putin’s Russia in deep focus

1. From Gorbachev to Yeltsin  Soviet and postSoviet elites (1986–91)  Yeltsin’s Russia and the world (1992–95)

2. From Yeltsin to Putin  The weak state and the oligarchs (1995–96)  Society shattered  Yeltsin’s second term and the financial crash (1996–99)

3. Power and Money: The Economic Foundations  How the economy changed  The shifting balance of oil power  Russia and the resource curse

4. Power and Money: The State, Oligarchs and Oil  Enter the men from the KGB (1999–2002)  The state takes charge of oil and gas (2002–07)  The ‘energy weapon’

5. Power and Money: From Oil Boom to Bust  The oil boom (2002–07)  The world crisis takes its toll (2007–09)

6. Power and People: How Russia is Ruled  The war that made Putin  ‘Managed democracy’ and its limits

vii ix xi

1

16 16 23

32 32 39 43

47 47 53 58

62 62 71 84

87 87 99

111 111 118

v i

C ONT E NT S

7. People and Money: Human Development Dilemmas  The demographic and health crisis  The widening gap between rich and poor  Social policy under Putin

8. People: Parties, Unions and NGOs  The political opposition  Movements for human rights and the environment, and  other NGOs  What about the workers?

9. People: Grassroots Movements  The welfare benefits revolt  Housing rights action  An array of causes

Conclusions

Notes Glossary of Russian words and abbreviations Chronology Further reading Index

133 133 137 145

148 151

155 160

173 173 177 185

191

198 216 217 220 222

PHOTOGRAPHS, FIGURES AND TABLES

Photographs  A woman shows researchers the remains of Yarysh  Mardy village in Chechnya, which was destroyed and  abandoned during the war, in December 2006 36  Power and money: Vladimir Putin, then president (left),  and the aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska at a  business conference in Vietnam in 2006 54  ‘Our children want to eat!’ Workers at the Volfram  mine complex, the main employer in Svetlogore village  in the Russian far east, demanding payment of wages  arrears, April 2009 102  Children in Grozny, the Chechen capital, in front of an  apartment block that was being rebuilt, in the summer  of 2007 117  Tough guy: the Kremlin released this image of Putin, then  president, on a hunting trip in Tyva, in September 2007 124  A demonstration against welfare benefits reforms,  January 2006, Izhevsk 142  ‘We won’t keep quiet!’ Workers at the Bummash  engineering factory in Izhevsk demanding better  conditions in the dormitories where they live, 2006 150  A protest over municipal housing policy, 2007, Izhevsk 174

Figures 3.1 Russian and world oil production growth, 1998–2007 4.1 Rising oil and gas tax revenues, 1999–2004 4.2 Oil revenues boosting the fiscal surplus, 2003–07 5.1 Net private sector capital flows in and out of  Russia, 1994–2008 7.1 As wealth grows, inequality grows, 1995–2007 7.2 Wages rising faster than pensions

56 77 78

98 138 139

v i i i

P HOTOGRA P HS , F I GU R E SA NDTA B L E S

Tables 3.1 GDP and living standards: down in the 1990s,  up in the 2000s 3.2 The role of oil and gas 5.1 Russia’s stock market boom, 2000–08 5.2 Industrial production, 2008–09 7.1 As incomes rise, the gap between rich and poor widens 7.2 The number of people living below the poverty line 8.1 Working days lost per year in legal strikes

49 52 89 109 139 141 164

PREFACE

This book aims to introduce Russia in the 2000s to the general reader. It focuses on the economy, politics and society in the broad sense of those words, and devotes attention to trade unions, community organisations and social movements.  I have been writing about Russia as a journalist since 1990, when I reported on miners’ protests in the Kuzbass coalfield. I have writ ten about the workers’ movement many times since. From 1997, I wrote mostly about the economy, occasionally in theObserver, but mostly in business publications includingEmerging Markets, Trade Finance, Financial News, Gas MattersandMetal Bulletin.So I have had the chance to get to know about both labour and capital at first hand. Speaking and reading Russian, and writing an earlier book about workers’ movements in the 1920s, has deepened my understanding.  This book is not reportage; it is an overview of the events and issues I think most important. I rely on books and articles by others, and the rich resources of Russia’s media, as well as on my own research. However, there are important parts of the picture mentioned only fleetingly, such as Russia’s foreign policy. And there’s another caveat: like all observers, I know some parts better than others, and in particular, I know far too little of Russia beyond Moscow. In September and October 2007, after Pluto Press had agreed to publish this book, I tried to compensate for that, by visiting Izhevsk, Togliatti and Samara, and material from that trip appears in Chapters 5, 8 and 9.  The Introduction puts Putin’s Russia in the context of the last 40 years of world history. Chapter 1 describes the transition from Gorbachev’s Soviet Union to Yeltsin’s Russia, and Chapter 2 brings the narrative to the point at which Putin took over. Chapter 3 presents a general picture of the Russian economy under Putin. The story of power and money relations is resumed in Chapter 4; the oil boom, and the bust that followed, is described in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 deals with politics in the broadest sense, Chapter 7 with human development issues, and Chapters 8 and 9 with social movements for change.