This volume offers analyses of the basic tendencies and the problems of Russia, Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and the Baltic states. It covers th

In 1991, a small group of Russians emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union and enjoyed one of the greatest transfers of wealth ever seen, claiming ownersh

By the end of the 2000s, the term 'resource curse' had become so widespread that it had turned into a kind of magic keyword, not only in the scholarly language

"The conventional wisdom is that a growing middle class will give rise to democracy. Yet the middle classes of the developing world have grown at a remarkable p

Originally published in 2004. The collapse of the USSR and the emergence of 15 new states from its ashes presents another challenge to the global economy: how t