Join PONARS Eurasia for a talk with Igor Logvinenko on Russian integration into global financial markets and the behavior of Russian elites. Despite the Western sanctions, Russia is currently more integrated into the global financial system than at any point in the previous one hundred years. Meanwhile, its domestic economic and political systems continue to suffer from traditional Russian ailments: widespread corruption, weak rule of law and an increasingly overbearing state. Igor Logvinenko argues that Russia’s post-Soviet re-entry into the global capital markets has been deeply entangled with the unruly competition for asset control in an environment of insecure property rights. The country’s unusual path towards financial integration, with its emphasis on the internationalization of the stock market, has allowed local elites to raise capital from foreign investors and to legitimize their wealth without improving the local business environment. This research points to a somber lesson for the advocates of integrating emerging markets into the global financial system. Without strong domestic rule-of-law protections, financial internationalization only further fortifies oligarchic capitalism. 

Registration is required for this event.

Speaker:

Igor Logvinenko, assistant professor, department of political science, Wellesley College