The Conundrum Of Russian Capitalism: The Post-s... Online

: Rather than seeking profit through innovation or market competition, Russian capitalists focus on "insider rent"—extracting wealth from the firms they control through opaque schemes.

Dzarasov places Russia within the "periphery" or "semi-periphery" of the global capitalist world-system.

In his book The Conundrum of Russian Capitalism: The Post-Soviet Economy in the World System , Ruslan Dzarasov argues that Russia's contemporary economic model is not a clean break from its communist past but rather a continuation of the Stalinist tradition, shaped by both the "degenerated Soviet bureaucracy" and the pressures of global, financialized capitalism. The Core Conundrum: Short-Termism and "Insider Rent" The Conundrum of Russian Capitalism: The Post-S...

: Global trends toward the "financialization" of capitalism—where profit is sought through financial markets rather than production—reinforce the Russian tendency toward short-termism and "accumulation by dispossession".

The "conundrum" refers to the paradoxical behavior of Russian business owners who systematically favor inferior, short-term gains over long-term, capacity-generating investments. : Rather than seeking profit through innovation or

: Instead of developing new technologies, Russian firms often rely on second-hand Western equipment.

: Business strategies are primarily designed to protect capital from takeovers by rivals or to seize rivals' assets in a corrupt and unstable environment. Relationship to the Global World-System The Core Conundrum: Short-Termism and "Insider Rent" :

The current system emerged from the chaotic transition of the 1990s: