The Russian Economy: Can Growth be Restored within the Economic System? by Susanne Oxenstierna, hosted on the FOI of Sweden is well worth a read. Roughly forty pages.
A bit of it's conclusions...
Market forces play only a limited role in the Russian economy and to improve the prospects for growth with ‘western’ economic policy or to improve the institutional framework will be difficult and have a limited effect. Only parts of the economy profit from market reforms and stronger institutions. The old rent dependent sector has strong political support. It follows that more substantial political reforms are needed to solve the structural impediments and efficiency problems of the Russian economy. Society needs to become more democratic and more transparent
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Today the Russian society is polarised on many political and economic issues, but civil society is weak and restricted and cannot fulfil its function either as watchdog or as a channel of ideas and entrepreneurship. Without political reform and a market-oriented democratic government it is difficult to see how the performance of the economy could improve.
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