ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Russia's coal industry in the late 1990s and focuses on the interests and actions of various actors. It looks particularly at the main industrial body—Rosugol—and the World Bank's successful attempt to do away with it. The chapter focuses on the miners—the last, formidable obstacle to the rapid contraction of Russia's coal industry. The reshaping of the Russian coal industry is part of the larger process of integrating Russia into the world capitalist economy. The Bank's role has been central, since, unlike oil and gas, the coal industry in Russia has dim prospects of becoming profitable, and private capital in the form of domestic financial-industrial giants or multinational corporations has not been clambering to gain control. The World Bank would likely argue that given Russia's economic difficulties, the government cannot afford to delay cutbacks in the coal industry.
