ABSTRACT
Despite claims recently made by some observers1 suggesting that the role of clan politics in Russia is of small importance, particularly in relation to Russia's major social and economic problems, the developments of the last few years have yet again demonstrated that not only does the problem exist, but that it also affects many areas of contemporary Russian development. The roots of the problem go back to the start of the Russian reform in the early 1990s. At that stage Russian politics were often seen as a struggle between a small group of reformists who were determined to pursue changes, and a vast majority of conservatives, most of whom were a part of the previous Soviet nomenklatura. However, as recently noted by Sam Vaknin, the motivations that formed the background of policies pursued by these Russian reformists were far from altruistic.
