IS RUSSIA BECOMING A PETRO-STATE?

摘要

In many respects, Russia increasingly resembles a petro-state. The oil and gas sector represent an important part of the GDP and over half of the total external trade. The importance of natural resources keeps growing: between 1995 and 2007, the share of mineral products rose from 42% to 65% of the total exports value. A number of economic indicators became to an increasing extent related to the global oil price, making the entire economy more sensitive to price fluctuations. Moreover, the excessive influx of petrodollars seems to stimulate corruption and increase social inequalities. While modern Russia’s economy shows symptoms endemic to economies over-dependent on natural resources, can we define Russia as a classical petro-state? This paper will discuss Russia’s development as a resource-rich country and consider whether Russia can be analyzed from the point of view of the “resource curse” concept given the current dependence on hydrocarbons for economic development. The relation between commodity exports and economic growth since 1998 is to be critically examined. The paper will also assess the importance of the fuel and energy complex (TEK in Russian) for the mid and long-term economical development.