Gazprom and Russian Government

Democracy was already viewed poorly in Russia, whose only other experience plunged them deeper into the depths of World War 1. This is significant because a majority of the Russian people felt during that time that their voices were not heard. Therefore, it should be noted then, that when Yeltsin took power, Russian’s had not seen true representative democracy. When, Yeltsin took power after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians were wary. This illegitimate view towards democracy was one of the reasons the resource curse had such a profound effect. The other that the economy was weak and the government was unstable. This in part was attributed to the loss of over 15 states when the Soviet Union fell, and the trade and overall economic problems that the new Yeltsin government assumed when this occurred. Even if Putin had been in power during this time, he would have faced similar problems, the regime was not to blame. When the Soviet Union fell, it was during a time where oil prices where falling, in fact, they would continue to fall until around 1996. The falling oil prices dramatically hurt the Yeltsin administration. When Putin took over, world prices has begun to rise, further Putin privatized part of the oil industry, which allowed new technologies to form, thus causing a booming oil economy in

a. Primary National Interest: Republic of Azerbaijan works to ensure sustained economic growth by protecting and exploiting proven oil reserves from deepwater Caspian Basin oilfields and its transport to growing western markets via the Baku-Tblilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and associated South Caucasus (SCP) gas pipeline. Azerbaijan leverages this energy development to build strategic partnerships & ensure international attention for its independence, and attempt to influence attitudes toward the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict.

On the other hand we had the USSR and their approach towards rebuilding Eastern Europe. “Modernization of production in the Soviet bloc opened new technical and bureaucratic careers, but economic development in satellite states remained slow because the USSR bought goods from these satellite states at bargain prices and sold to them exorbitant ones. Despite this inequity, peoples livelihoods

Russia began its reform with political liberalization, and many believe that Russia’s failure was partly due to focusing on political reform first and they should have begun with economic reforms which China had done. This lead to political turmoil so severe that in 1989-1993 workers were politically neutralized and unable to stop Yeltsin’s liberal market reforms. But, a small group of oligarchs helped to

The Internal Market of the European Union (EU) is one of Europe’s significant achievements and its greatest resource in times of modern globalisation. Since its creation in 1993, the Internal Market has opened itself more to competition, created jobs and reduced many trade barriers. It is the principal instrument for building a stronger and fairer economy in the EU. It assures the free movement of people, services, goods and capital, and by doing so, creates fresh opportunities for businesses and consumers. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union adopts measures with the aim of combining national markets in a single market with the characteristics of a domestic market. The vision is that it should be as easy to trade between London and Madrid as it is between London and Manchester.

The Russian state has been characterized by its strong heritage of powerful, autocratic leadership. This domination by small ruling elite has been seen throughout Russia's history and has transferred into its economic history. Throughout the Russian czarist period, to the legacy of seventy years of communism; Russia has been a country marked by strong central state planning, a strict command economy and an overall weak market infrastructure (Goldman, 2003). Self-interest, manipulation and corruption have all been present in the Russian economy, and have greatly helped the few as opposed to the many. To this day, Russia still struggles with creating a competitive and fair market.

Understanding that heavy economic repression was unsustainable and leading to the worsening economic conditions, the liberalization reform plan aimed to decentralize markets and relax some restrictions set by the previous government. The first policy deregulated the commodity market by reversing price freezes, privatizing previously nationalized

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, came into power in 1985. The economy that he acquired made further damage just about impossible. Because of this problematic economy and the growing political fever, he introduced two new reforms. One of these reforms was glasnost, or political openness, which made such effects as banishing ever present secret police. The second reform was perestroika, or economic reconstruction, which permitted individuals and cooperatives to own businesses and other allowances such as this. However, these reforms didn’t make the Soviet Union stronger, because the old system was quick to

1. The purpose of this paper is to give background on Russia’s history and mythology as well as its economy and natural resources. This paper will further explore the ways in which these domains influence Russia’s actions in regards to US interests.

Russia’s legislature approved the forced transfer of certain fields to government-controlled firms. In 2006, Shell was forced to transfer an expansion project to Gazprom. That same year, concern over the possible revocation of the license to the Kovykta gas field and Gazprom’s ability to block construction of a pipeline to China, forced TNK-BP to sell its stake in the field. Gazprom purchased the stake for less than a third of its real value. The Russian government had also been known to both privatize or nationalize firms and rig auctions in order to favor government-controlled corporations.

Russia's new strength is also based on its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, which as the price of crude exceeds $ 120 per barrel, give the country tremendous bargaining power, not only in its relations with countries directly dependent on its supplies as Ukraine, Germany and Hungary, but, in general, by the capacity of influence that give

The oil industry is one of great power that countries are invest in. Russia is one of the leading contenders in producing oil and exports the goods to various countries. With great resources comes great strength. Oil is of the utmost important to every country therefore, Russia has an upper hand in some respects. Moreover, the history behind the oil pipelines and how Russia connects to different countries allows for insight into the power they withhold politically and economically, and on the improvements that need to be made to continue growth in this industry.

Strong economic growth fuelled by High Oil Prices and modernisation of the economy Rapid development of airport terminal industry reinforced by Global events in Russia within the period

With the effect of the Single European Act on 1st July 1987, the emergence of European Union (EU) as a common market has essentially been created. The benefits of this act are substantial to European firms, economies, and workers. It eliminates conflicting national regulations and trade barriers, as well as offering firms opportunity to sell their goods to all other EU members (Griffin & Pustay 2005).

For several years now the European Union, the largest regional trading block in the world, has been trying to liberalize its energy market, replacing the markets of its 27 member states with a single continent wide market for electricity and gas. The first phase of liberalization went into effect in June 2007. When fully implemented, the ability of energy producers to sell