Clifford Gaddy's and Barry Ickes' paradigm of the "virtual economy" has fundamentally changed the way people think about Russia's economy. Circulated at the highest levels of the Russian and U.S. governments and reported in leading publications worldwide, their thesis--that Russia's economy is...

This is a provocative look at a problem that has been overlooked since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book argues that years of forcing people and economic activity out into the vast, resource-rich, but inhospitably cold, territory of Siberia has burdened Russia with huge problems and costs