The Russian State and Russian Energy Companies, 19922018
The Russian State and Russian Energy Companies analyses the development of relations between the state and five major energy companies, and how this shaped Russias foreign policy in the post-Soviet region. The book argues that the development of Russias political economy mattered for foreign policy over the quarter of a century from 1992 to 2018. Energy companies roles in institutional development enabled them to influence foreign policy formation, and they became available as tools to implement foreign policy. The extent to which it happened for each company varied with their accessibility to the Russian state. Institutional development increased state capacity, in a way that strengthened Russias political regime. The book shows how the combined power of several companies in the gas, oil, electricity, and nuclear energy industry was a key feature of Russian foreign policy, both in bilateral relationships and in support of Russias regional position. In this way, Russias energy resources were converted to regional influence. The book contributes to our understanding of Russias political economy and its influence on foreign policy, and of the formation of policy towards post-Soviet states.
Ingerid M. Opdahl is associate professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS) at the Norwegian Defence University College, and heads the IFSs Russian Security and Defence Programme. She obtained a PhD in Russian, European and Eurasian Studies from the University of Birmingham in 2016. Opdahl has earlier published on Russias relations with Georgia and with Central Asian states. Her current research is part of the international research project Russias Politicized Economy, Elite Dynamics and the Domestic-Foreign Policy Nexus (RUSECOPOL), funded by the Norwegian Research Council and led by the IFS.
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Ingerid M. Opdahl
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First published 2020
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The young company president was barricaded in his Moscow office, the building surrounded by special police. When they went in early the next morning, to force him to give up his position in favour of a politically desirable replacement, media reported that the office door was opened using an angle grinder. The stand-off ended with the entry of the new company president. While the outgoing had been known for his audacity, his successor was an experienced and adept industry executive. Over the next eight years, he skilfully expanded the business while giving the occasional memorable media statement. Both are now long gone from Transneft, the Russian oil pipeline monopoly. It has since been headed by a loyal, and far less colourful, manager with a similar background to President Vladimir Putin. Conflicts over company management in Transneft and other energy companies are now more low-key, even when dramatic. They involve documents, delaying tactics and the occasional charge of fraud or embezzlement, rather than office sieges broken by police wielding power tools. What has not changed is that the outcome of such conflicts impacts Russian politics and influences institutional change in the economy. After all, they involve control over resource streams money flows and relations between the state and energy companies remain crucial in the Russian political economy. This book shows how statebusiness relations in Russia have developed and made energy companies so important, to the extent that they even became foreign policy tools of the state.
Statecompany relations are crucial in any political economy, not just Russias. This is especially the case when the rules of the game change. When every new rule has the potential to upset all short-term plans and long-term strategies, elites make their best effort to control decisive positions, as they did in post-Soviet Russia from 1992 to 2018. Even so, and even in periods of rapid change, the institutions, the rules of the game, evolve more slowly. The scope of this book is a consequence of the theoretical perspective on institutional development. Empirical realities also mattered for the design. The end of the Soviet Union was the beginning of the contemporary post-Soviet states. The centrifugal changes that followed have gradually turned the states into different political entities. It is meaningless to analyse them applying a one-size-fits-all approach. Nevertheless, Russias energy relations with them exhibit many continuities. Some ties have lost their relevance, whereas others have enhanced their significance. Covering a long time period makes it possible to show how and to arrive at a more complete picture.
