Book Manuscript

Control and Access: Russia’s Engagement with Global Finance (tentative title)

Control and Access explores the role of financial policies vis-à-vis foreign capital in the context of the dramatic economic transformation that took place in Russia during the last 30 years. Research presented in the book reveals that in the absence of functioning property rights institutions and minority shareholder protections, Russia’s internal politics of control over the assets have been driving the external financial openness policies of access. Relying on the analysis of thousands of press accounts in the English and Russian-language press, interviews with former policymakers, academics and journalists, and official data sources, the book demonstrates that regulations of access of foreign money are in large part a product of politics of struggle for control over the most valuable assets among the key groups of domestic actors. In particular, the book focuses on the relationship between the business elites and the state in shaping Russia's financial openness policies since 1992. The project demonstrates that the heightened connectivity between the Russian economy and global financial markets that dates back to Vladimir Putin's second term has been enormously influential in strengthening the authoritarian system. The argument implies the disquieting possibility of a symbiotic co-existence between deep financial integration and authoritarianism in Russia and elsewhere. 


​(Manuscript workshop held at Wellesley College in October 2017). 









Published Work

2018. "Weak States and Uneven Pluralism: Lessons from Mali and Kyrgyzstan"  Democratization  [w/ Jaimie Bleck]

2017. “Conflict and Violence in Kyrgyzstan.” Case Study for the UN-World Bank Flagship Study, “Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict,” World Bank, Washington, DC.

2016. “Reflecting on Alternative Explanations and Legacies of State Socialism” (Review symposium of Kelly M. McMann’s Corruption as a Last Resort). Central Asian Affairs, 3: 193-96.

2014. Review of Capital, Coercion, and Postcommunist States by Gerald M. Easter Europe-Asia Studies 66-4

2013. "The Dirty Truth About Russia's 'Dirty' Money."  The Moscow Times # 5231.

2008. "Generational Differences in Russian Attitudes towards Democracy and the Economy." Europe-Asia Studies 8, 1345-69. [w/ Jeffrey Hahn]

Working Papers

“Control and Access: Intra-Elite Conflict and Financial Integration in Russia.” (under review)

"Open Economies, Closed Polities: Financial Openness and Authoritarianism with Evidence from Russia and China." (revising)

"Self-Enforcing Autocracy in Russia" (draft)









Please contact me for the most recent versions of these  papers.