This book provides a comprehensive overview of economic developments in Russia since the late 1990s. Key subjects covered include economic transition, privatization and liberalization, changes in land ownership and agriculture, energy, foreign direct investment, economic stabilization, and economic performance.

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.

Praise for the author's previous publications, also published by Routledge.The New Russia: a Handbook of Economic and Political Developments, (Routledge, 2002)'...a valuable source of detailed information and, above all, for Western views of Russia', Economic Journal, 2003A Guide to the Socialist Economies (1990).`Jeffries has produced a useful reference guide that will doubtless become a standard in the field and a valuable addition to academic libraries' - Journal of Comparative Economics, 1991.'... a very welcome addition to the library of publications on the socialist world ... more than a textbook - it is also a reference book and a guide ... Jeffries covers a vast area. It is a truly formidable task to catch up with all the changes that are taking place in these countries, and the author does it with great success', International Affairs, 1990. The Balkans: a Post-Communist History (Routledge, 2007) 'an extremely useful and handy introduction to a complicated but fascinating and important subject. The book provides a wealth of easily digestible information on the post-communist period, but in addition to that it provides a full historical introduction to each state it deals with.' - Richard Crampton, University of Oxford'...a lucid account of the development of a region which for over a century has produced more history than could be consumed locally. Simple without being simplistic, analytical yet not overbearing, enlightening but not scholastic, it is a must read for scholars and laymen alike.' - Petya Nitzova, University of Oklahoma'a highly ambitious work … that covers nine countries, about a dozen different ethnicities, several civil wars and a time period of roughly two millennia … We may be sure that Bideleux and Jeffries have not said the last word on this troubled corner of the world’ Susanne Hillman, University of California San Diego, in Australian Slavonic and East European Review, 2007.