Western researchers studying the former Soviet Union first paid attention to the phenomenon of blat — to do with the use of informal contacts and networks to obtain goods and services or to influence decision making — in the 1950s. Yet although the importance of blat has been pointed to,...

Just as the August 1998 financial crisis overturned the predictions of a Russian boom, the quick post‐crisis recovery of the Russian economy came as a surprise too. It has almost become a commonplace that ‘nothing is as strong or as weak in Russia as it seems’ and the need to understand...