Cover Osteuropa 5/2016

In Osteuropa 5/2016

Limited Access Order
State Weakness as Investment Risk in Russia

Janis Kluge


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

The state is considered a key political risk for foreign investors in Russia. But companies can be forced from the market by competitors using unfair methods. This is seen in the case of Swedish mobile operator Tele2. The reason for this double risk is a social order in which an elite coalition has secured economic privileges while competitors are granted only limited access. Property rights are no more protected from political intervention than the political world is from corruption by powerful economic interests. Russia does not need “more” state or “less” state, but a state based on the rule of law.

(Osteuropa 5/2016, pp. 111–127)