The Battle for Russian Oil: Corporations, Regions, and the State

This book is about the politics of the Russian oil industry from 1991 to 2011. Within this twenty-year period, fierce battles emerged over who controls Russia's oil industry: the Kremlin, Russian regional governors, or the oligarchs? These clashes determined the course of development for Russia's oil sector, and have defined the evolution of Russia's political system, from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the present day. The book explores four themes: The first theme presents a story of the expanded influence of regional governors over Russia's internal politics and economy in the 1990s. As a result, fledging domestic oil companies experienced considerable constraints on their business activities within a semi-disintegrated Russian state. The second theme examines the economic and political strategies deployed by these companies to achieve corporate consolidation over Russia's oil sector in the late 1990s-early 2000s. During this period, oligarchs succeeded not only in undermining the grip of regional governors on the domestic oil industry, but also in emerging as a new political threat to the Kremlin. The third theme, then, focuses on the Kremlin's re-assertion of state control over the national oil sector, and the declining political power of governors and oligarchs in Russia in the 2000s. Finally, the book reveals how the Kremlin elite, regions, and oil companies view the future of the domestic oil industry and its role in the modernisation of Russia.