ABSTRACT
The purpose of this book is to explain how businesses deal with the numerous obstacles and challenges they face in Russia’s real economy and what this reveals about business–state relations. This introductory chapter begins by showing that although the Kremlin has formally supported private-sector development for over two decades, the business environment is still beset with uncertainty and risks, including insecure property rights, a politicised judicial system, arbitrary interference by officials, corruption, harassment and violence. This disparity between what the Kremlin says and the reality of doing business in the real economy is explained using the concept of ‘institutional asymmetry’ (Williams and Vorley 2014), which means that informal norms have greater influence than formal rules and regulations. However, while much is already known about the overall structure of Russia’s political economy, including the leading role of the state and the relative weakness of the private sector, little is known about what entrepreneurs do to get by and why they are motivated to try. This sets the scene for the investigation that follows, with the prospect of revealing new insights into how the Russian economy works in practice.
