No Place in BRIC for Russia’s Economic Mess
Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, comments that Russia's economy, dominated by oil and gas and dependent on global energy prices, is underperforming compared to the other BRIC countries.
In an opinion editorial for The Moscow Times, Aslund states that: "The critical insight is that the higher the oil price is, the lower Russia's long-term economic growth is likely to be, because the ruling elite will thrive on energy rents rather than pursue reforms or invest in human capital. The greater the corruption is, the more repression the rulers need to defend their fraudulent revenues." Aslund believes Gazprom is "the greatest management failure of them all" and that the country's largest shortcoming is its "pervasive top-level corruption".