俄罗斯资本外逃问题探析

俄罗斯的资本外逃问题引起了国际经济界和金融界的广泛关注。俄资本外逃的额度、方式、原因以及俄政府为防止资本外逃采取的措施，都是值得思考和研究的问题。俄资本外逃总额大大超出了20世纪90年代俄罗斯经济中的外国投资总额和外国对俄经济的援助额。只有俄罗斯政治经济形势趋向稳定，俄政府坚持改革、清除腐败、强化银行体系，才能逐步减少资本外逃规模，最终使外逃资本回归。     

俄罗斯东北亚战略的形成及其前景

20世纪90年代以来,随着世界经济格局的不断变化,经济区域化和全球化的发展趋势逐步加快,东北亚区域合作也随之发展。在东北亚经济合作中,由于俄罗斯东部地区独特的地理位置和丰富的自然资源,其作用愈来愈明显,俄罗斯也愈来愈重视与亚太地区特别是东北亚地区的联系,并形成了一系列较完整的地区性战略,它对东北亚区域经济合作的影响日显重要。当然,还有许多因素制约着俄罗斯东北亚战略的实施,影响着东北亚区域经济合作向深度和广度发展。然而由于区域合作历史发展趋势的推动,由于俄罗斯加快发展东部地区经济的迫切需要,俄罗斯将会积极推进东北亚战略,促进与东北亚各国经济合作,其前景将非常广阔。     

宪政:当代俄罗斯法治国家构建的基础

宪政不单纯是以宪法为核心的一套制度体系,同时也是已有制度的实践运行,在更深层次上是一种宪政文化.当代俄罗斯宪政从制度到精神实质都发生了明显的转向,这与现代法治以个体自由为核心的价值追求相契合.对转型期的俄罗斯而言,宪法是构建法治国家的前提基础,宪法司法制度的确立对法治国家的生成提供保障,扬弃民族传统的宪政文化的培育是法治国家确立的精神根基.     

Russian Robber Barons: Moscow Business, American Style

Russia after communism is a hotbed of crime. Russian Robber Barons addresses villainy in market construction and draws on U.S. experience for comparisons. Crime will not be eradicated in Russia, nor has it been eliminated elsewhere, but a carefully crafted legal system can reduce damage wrought by unproductive criminal activity and guide entrepreneurs into legal operations beneficial to themselves and society. Robber baron activities match Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, but Mafia-style crime is merely destructive. Economic success demands that Russia join Western market societies in the search for laws to throttle destructive crime and encourage entrepreneurship.     

The Taming of the Internet

The Russian system of state internet censorship has been steadily expanding in recent years. The Russian government has succeeded in placing under its control both domestic and foreign internet companies operating in Russia and in establishing a system that can be used to conduct mass surveillance of internet users. However, the state censorship regime remains incomplete, as it is focused on countering small numbers of dissidents and is not designed to prevent the spread of information among thousands of users.     

Security relations in the Black Sea region: Russia and the West after the Ukrainian crisis

The Ukrainian conflict – as all post-Soviet conflicts – has three interrelated dimensions – global, regional and local – with deep implications for international security including the Black Sea region. The strategic interdependence between Russiaand West during the last decade became not only anaemic but antagonistic. The regional implications of that can be compared to the boomerang effect: problems at the strategic level affect the regional level and return to the originators. Generally speaking, Commonwealth of Independent States conflicts can be viewed as the product of the Soviet legacy and the patchy collapse of the USSR as well as the ill-conceived policies and mistakes of the involved parties, Russia and external actors – USA, NATO and EU.     

The return of the empire? Russia's counteraction to transatlantic democracy promotion in its near abroad

Russia's recent actions in its neighbourhood have not only upset Western policies but have also reinvigorated arguments that Russia may be promoting autocracy to counteract democracy promotion by the European Union and the United States. They have also underlined a broader problem: that of how illiberal powers may react to democracy promotion, especially when their strategic interests are at stake. This article investigates these issues by studying Russia's interactions with the countries in its neighbourhood and democracy promoters. First, the article argues that even if Russia has contributed to the stagnation of democratization and ineffectiveness of democracy promotion in its neighbourhood, its actions do not constitute autocracy promotion and largely lack ideological underpinnings. Second, Russia's counteraction to democracy promotion stems from its ambitions of restoring its great power status, maintaining its regional influence, and perceiving Western policies as a threat to its interests. Third, when it considers its strategic interests undermined, Russia employs economic and military threats (sometimes incentives) against its neighbourhood countries to make the compliance with Western policies less preferable.     

The vicious circle of post-Soviet neopatrimonialism in Russia

Since the collapse of Communism, Russia and some other post-Soviet states have attempted to pursue socioeconomic reforms while relying upon the political institutions of neopatrimonialism. This politico-economic order was established to serve the interests of ruling groups and establish the major features of states, political regimes, and market economies. It provided numerous negative incentives for governing the economy and the state due to the unconstrained rent-seeking behavior of major actors. Policy reform programs revealed these institutions to be incompatible with the priorities of modernization, and efforts to resolve these contradictions through a number of partial and compromise solutions often worsened the situation vis-à-vis preservation of the status quo. The ruling groups lack incentives for institutional changes, which could undermine their political and economic dominance, and are caught in a vicious circle: reforms often result in minor returns or cause unintended and undesired consequences. What are the possible domestic and international incentives to reject the political institutions of neopatrimonialism in post-Soviet states and replace them with inclusive economic and political ones?     

Between crises and sanctions: economic policy of the Russian Federation

This paper examines the root causes and features of crises of the Russian economy in 2014–2015 as a combination of structural and institutional problems, as well as cyclical and external shocks. The demand-side model of economic growth based on massive windfall revenue from oil and gas exports from the 2000s is now exhausted, and the country needs to shift to a new, supply-side model of growth. Mobilization and liberalization are discussed as two key economic policy alternatives. The analysis includes historical retrospection, which provides some important lessons from economic developments in the twentieth century: the Great Depression and the period of stagflation, the Soviet industrialization debate and perestroika, and the New Economic Policy in the USSR and the contemporary modernization of China. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of economic growth acceleration in present-day Russia. They include macroeconomic stabilization, structural and institutional reforms based on liberalization of economic activity, and guarantees of property rights.     

Russia and its supporters in Europe: trans-ideology à la carte?

The impact of crisis in Ukraine on EU–Russia relations appears twofold. On the one hand, it revealed the high degree of disdain all across Europe to Moscow's neo-imperial approach. On the other hand, it unveiled a great deal of affection and sympathy to Kremlin's policy among a number of non-mainstream but significant groups within the EU. In this article, we mirror the major troubles of today’s Europe, as seen from Moscow’s perspective, with four nodal points of the Kremlin’s hegemonic discourse: social conservatism, nation state-based policies, independence from the US influence and the glorification of Russia’s self-inflicted mission of fighting contemporary neo-fascism. Our analysis of non-mainstream political parties in EU member states, sensitive and responsive to the Kremlin’s agenda, suggests that Putin's regime and Russia sympathizers in Europe pragmatically use each other, thereby challenging the classical ideological paradigms. This translates Russia’s policies into a trans-ideological repertoire of different discourses that differently resonate among the groups of Russia sympathizers.