ABSTRACT
This is the introductory chapter that briefly outlines major points of post-socialist economic transition and macroeconomic poverty trap situation in Russia. The sharp decline in the national production that Russia endured in the 1990s, linked directly to the exhausting and ill-planned transition from the planned economy to the market economy, resulted in Russia plunging into the poverty trap. This chapter outlines the goal of this book as to determine whether and how Russia manages to overcome the poverty trap and initiate and sustain economic growth. By doing so, this study fills the gap between the volatile economic growth as an objective economic reality in Russia and the lack of scholarly literature on the issue. This chapter formulates the main argument of the study about the role of foreign aid in overcoming the macroeconomic poverty trap in Russia. This chapter also outlines the structure of the study.
