Hostile takeovers and company captures have been an everyday reality in the post-Soviet Russian economy. This phenomenon is called “reiderstvo” in Russian, a term which is derived from the English word "raiding”. The article introduces the reader into the subject, identifies the main historical phases of "reiderstvo" during the 1990s and 2000s, provides description of a typical raiding attack and connects the "reiderstvo" phenomenon to activities of informal networks in the Russian business and state apparatus.

This 70-page special section “Economic development in Russia” of the Swedish scholarly academic journal "Baltic Worlds" contains six peer-reviewed articles on recent developments in Russian economy, an interview with professor Andrei Yakovlev of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and introduction written by the section's academic guest editor, PhD Ilja Viktorov.Contents:Andrei Yakovlev. Russian economy at the crossroads, before and beyond the Ukrainian crisis, interview with Ilja ViktorovAnton Oleinik. Price of opulence. On a constellation of interests in the European market for natural gasLeo Granberg & Ann-Mari Sätre. Agency and development in second Russia: using opportunities in a local contextOlga Golubeva. Business climate in Russia: Swedish investors’ perspectiveSusanne Oxenstierna. Prospects for institutional reform in the Russian economyMi Lennhag. The rise of anti-corruption demands: The Ukrainian Maidan movement as different from everyday discussions in RussiaAlexander Abramov, Maria Chernova, Alexander Radygin. Financial markets regulation in Russia: models, evolution, efficiency

The entry provides a brief introduction into insider trading as an informal practice in stock markets, with emphasis on the US historical experience. Examples from Russia and Nigeria as emerging markets are also provided.

The chapter introduces the reader into developments of illegal corporate raiding ("reiderstvo" in Russian) in post-Communist Russia and explains its interdependency with privatization in the 1990s and persistence of weak property rights protection that followed. It connects the issue to the concept of Russia's network state enabling understanding of how existence and interaction of informal power networks facilitate redistribution of property and economic assets. Typology of reiderstvo is presented in historical perspective and a number of empirical cases of reiderstvo from the 1990s until 2010s are discussed. In particular, the role played by representatives of security services in the state apparatus and business (“siloviki” in Russian) for increase of reiderstvo after 2000 is stressed.

The period of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency in 2008–2012, that is, the duumvirate of Dmitry Medvedev as president and Vladimir Putin as prime minister, is usually referred to in Russian media as tandemocratia, or "tandemocracy ". The interview describes the experience of tandemocracy for the Russian political system and takes up the main novelties inside the Russian political system and elites after 2008. It also provides some insights into Vladimir Putin's leadership during his third presidentship after 2012

Interview article with Andrei Yakovlev, professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and head of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies on recent tendecies. Yakovlev, a leading Russian economist, has a deepknowledge of the transformation of Russian enterprise throughout the post-Soviet time. In this interview, he puts the microeconomic perspective within a broad political economic context and evaluates the policy choices made by Russia’s political elites after the Arab Spring in 2011. Although he is quite pessimistic about Russia’s prospects, Yakovlev suggests that the new geopolitical situation and sanctions have created promising opportunities for the Russian economy. However, these opportunities can be used only if Russian elites achieve a new consensus regarding redistribution of economic rent.

This article contributes to international political economy debates about the monetary power autonomy (MPA) of emerging market and developing countries (EMDs). The 2014-15 Russian financial crisis is used as a case study to explore why an accumulation of large international reserves does not provide protection against currency crises and macroeconomic adjustments in EMDs. The analysis centres on the interplay between two dimensions of MPA: the Power to Delay and the Power to Deflect adjustment costs. Two structural factors condition Russia's low MPA. First, the country's subordinated integration in global financial markets increases its financial vulnerability. The composition of external assets and liabilities, combined with cross-border capital flows, restrict the use of international reserves to delay currency crises. Second, the choice of a particular macroeconomic policy regime embraced the financialisation of the - mainly state-owned - Russian banking sector, thus making it difficult to transform liquidity inflows into credits for enterprises. Russia's main comparative advantage, hydrocarbon export revenues, is not exploited. The type of economy created due to the post-Communist transition means that provided excessive' liquidity remains in the financial system and is channelled into currency arbitrage. This factor increases exchange rate vulnerability and undermines Russia's MPA.

This article explores the expansion of the Russian state into financial markets after the 2008 global financial crisis. The main argument is that the Russian state has been unable to pursue its own developmental agenda in the sector despite increased regulation and state takeovers. While independent private market participants were pushed aside by state-controlled financial intermediaries, the state failed to follow its own policy strategy towards establishing an international financial centre in Moscow. Instead, the Russian financial market institutions were rendered into a vehicle for inter-bank lending under control of the Central Bank of Russia. Data from Russian stock market and corporate bond market trading highlights the trend. The study discusses the role played by informal power networks in redistribution of state-controlled resources and financial flows, and how this factor influenced the state regulation of financial markets in Russia.