Contribution to Book
Russian energy companies in the new Eastern Europe: The cases of Ukraine and Belarus
Russian business power : the role of Russian business in foreign and security relations
(2006)
Abstract
The Soviet period left a legacy of dependency in the former Soviet area, and nowhere is this dependency more clearly seen than in the case of energy. Indeed, Ukraine’s and Belarus’s degree of dependency on Russian oil and gas has remained very high since 1991. 1 This reliance on Russian energy is largely due to structural factors since both countries depend almost entirely on Russian energy for domestic consumption: there are no pipelines connecting these countries directly to other energy producers, and alternative supplies must be transported through Russia. Both states also depend on Russian capital and sales markets, and businesses in Ukraine and Belarus are tied to Moscow business structures and Soviet-era personal networks. Additionally, the Ukrainian and Belarusian economies retain strong links to Russia in other critical areas, such as metallurgy and heavy machine building. Looking at energy links helps us to better understand the importance of various types of informal …
Keywords
- Russia Federation,
- Foreign relations,
- Business and politics,
- Organized crime
Disciplines
Publication Date
2006
Editor
Andreas Wenger, Jeronim Perović and Robert W. Orttung
Publisher
Routledge
Series
Routledge transnational crime and corruption series
ISBN
9780203099728
Citation Information
Margarita Balmaceda. "Russian energy companies in the new Eastern Europe: The cases of Ukraine and Belarus" New YorkRussian business power : the role of Russian business in foreign and security relations Vol. 1 (2006) p. 85 - 105 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/margarita-balmaceda/17/