ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to throw some new light on certain disputed aspects of the Russian business environment. It deals with the little-known side of the Russian economic transition, the insufficient provision of capital investment. Barter is just one of the unusual features of the relations between buyers and sellers in modern Russia. Others include reliance on informal networks and rent seeking. The book describes how Russian firms manage their relations with customers and suppliers under these conditions. It also seeks to make a distinction between the largest and dominant shareholders in order to identify a link between the pattern of shareholding and the efficiency of firms. The book examines the validity of the claim that insider shareholding is a major stumbling block on the way of enterprise restructuring in Russia.
