Can oil wealth explain the political development in Post-Communist Russia?

Abstract

This thesis takes a closer look at the suggested connection between rents from oil and gas, and the failure to complete democratic transition. Michael Ross claims in his book "The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations" (2012) that there is a causal link here, and uses Russia as one of his examples. I will show that if one looks closer at the political and economic context and development in Russia, this connection is at best indirect. Of course the oil rents has a huge impact on the Russian economy and political life, but there are several reasons why Russia has moved in a more authoritarian direction during President Putin`s first two terms which would not necessarily be otherwise without oil greasing the economy, but is more a result of legacies from Imperial Russia, the communist Soviet Union and the seriously compromised transition to democracy and marked economy during the chaotic 1990s.