Neither Boon nor Bane
Management of the Oil Boom in the Post-Soviet Space
Andreas Heinrich, Heiko Pleines
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The boom in oil and gas calls for political management on the part of the elites of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. This is necessary to organize the extraction of raw materials, to establish rules, and to define the role of foreign investors, as well as to administer the revenues derived from the export of raw materials. Inefficient administration and corruption are a structural problem. If maintenance of political power were the standard of measurement instead of socioeconomic development, then the presidents of the four aforementioned countries have been very successful in managing the oil boom.
(Osteuropa 7/2013, pp. 87–100)