Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia

Marshall I. Goldman

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July 5, 2008

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Brought back from near bankruptcy in 1998 by Vladimir Putin, Russia has been born again. Today it has paid off its international debt and gone on to accumulate the world’s third largest holdings of foreign currency reserves. It has done this by becoming the world’s largest producer of petroleum and the world’s second largest exporter. While its petroleum exports have brought it wealth, its natural gas exports to Europe have brought it newfound political clout.

Based on extensive research, including several interviews with Vladimir Putin, Marshall Goldman’s PETROSTATE: Putin, Power, and the New Russia is a revealing chronicle of Russia's dramatic reemergence on the world stage. Goldman traces how this has come to be and how Russia is using its oil-based power as a lever in world politics. He provides an informative overview of oil in Russia, tracing Vladimir Putin's determined effort to reign in the upstart oil oligarchs who had risen to power in the post-Soviet era. He describes Putin's efforts to renationalize and refashion Russia's industries into state companies and his vaunted national champions corporations like Gazprom, largely owned by the state, who do the state’s bidding. Goldman shows how Russia paid off its international debt and has gone on to accumulate the world's third largest holdings of foreign currency reserves—all by becoming the world's largest producer of petroleum and the world's second largest exporter. Today, Vladimir Putin, his cohorts, and oil have stabilized the Russian economy and recentralized power in Moscow.

The story of oil and gas in Russia is a tale of discovery, intrigue, corruption, wealth, misguidance, greed, patronage, nepotism, and power. Marshall Goldman tells this story with panache, as only one of the world's leading authorities on Russia could.

Marshall Goldman is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Wellesley College and Senior Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. An internationally recognized authority on Russian history, politics, and economics, he has met with Mikhail Gorbachev and interviewed Vladimir Putin and has advised former President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush on Russia.

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Marshall I. Goldman, Author | Professor of Economics Emeritus at Wellesley College and Senior Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University
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