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From communism to capitalism to collapse, the highs and lows of doing business in post-Soviet Russia.
When the hammer and sickle came down in late 1991, Russia’s feverish new market opened for business. From banking to breweries, sectors emerged out of nowhere, in a country that had never had a functioning economy. For the next three turbulent decades, a wild, proto-capitalist free-for-all transformed Russian society.
Then, in 2022, Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The market started to collapse; Western firms fled Moscow’s skyscrapers. No country this large had ever remade itself so dizzyingly – now, just as dramatically, it was over. The intervening decades had seen phenomenal successes and crushing failures; the creation and destruction of enormous fortunes. How did it all happen?
Zero Sum brings to life the complex, vivid colour of one of the greatest experiments in the history of global commerce. What have businesses learnt—or failed to learn—from this adventure, both about Russia and about dynamics between countries and companies in the face of relentless change?
Dedication
A note on sources
Preface
Chapter One: The phone rings
Chapter Two: Was it ever thus?
Chapter Three: The “unbreakable union”
Chapter Four: The Backdrop
Chapter Five: The walls couldn’t talk, but they could listen
Chapter Six: Joint Adventures
Chapter Seven: Insecurities
Chapter Eight: Two systems, one country
Chapter Nine: The valerian days
Chapter Nine-and-a-half: Time out
Chapter Ten: “Who’s the boss?”
Chapter Eleven: That time compliance was sexy
Chapter Twelve: You can’t go home again
Acknowledgements
Description
From communism to capitalism to collapse, the highs and lows of doing business in post-Soviet Russia.
When the hammer and sickle came down in late 1991, Russia’s feverish new market opened for business. From banking to breweries, sectors emerged out of nowhere, in a country that had never had a functioning economy. For the next three turbulent decades, a wild, proto-capitalist free-for-all transformed Russian society.
Then, in 2022, Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The market started to collapse; Western firms fled Moscow’s skyscrapers. No country this large had ever remade itself so dizzyingly – now, just as dramatically, it was over. The intervening decades had seen phenomenal successes and crushing failures; the creation and destruction of enormous fortunes. How did it all happen?
Zero Sum brings to life the complex, vivid colour of one of the greatest experiments in the history of global commerce. What have businesses learnt—or failed to learn—from this adventure, both about Russia and about dynamics between countries and companies in the face of relentless change?
