Large Business in Putin’s Russia: Old and New Sources of Power and Influence

Abstract

Ilya Matveev – PhD in Politics, Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Political Studies, North-West Institute of Management RANEPA. Address: 57/43, Srednij Lane, V.O.,
Saint Petersburg, 199178, Russian Federation. E-mail: matveev.ilya@yahoo.com

Citation: Matveev I. (2019) Large Business in Putin’s Russia: Old and New Sources of Power and Influence. Mir Rossii, vol. 28, no 1, pp. 54–74 (in Russian). DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2019-28-1-54-74

The dominant scholarly view of large business in Putin’s Russia is that it is completely subordinate to the state. Researchers point out that big business is implicitly kept away from
financing any political opposition and is required to invest in projects that are important for the authorities. However, the rapid growth of the number of Russian billionaires and their
cumulative wealth during the 2000s and the 2010s indicate that the institutional and political setup in Russia is in fact quite favorable for big business. This article maintains that the
picture of the political influence of large business is incomplete without taking into account such factors as the structural power of capital (the state’s dependence on the economic
decisions of private companies), information asymmetry (big business’s advantage in information and expertise) and the instrumental power of capital (formal and informal
channels of influence). While in the 1990s large businesses had very high instrumental power and low structural power, in the 2000s and the 2010s structural power takes center
stage: the authorities implemented pro-business policies in order to maintain investment and economic growth. Large companies have acquired new sources of political influence, such
as ties with businessmen from Putin’s inner circle. According to data from open sources, 9 out of 96 billionaires from the 2017 Russian Forbes list have or had extensive business ties
with four businessmen close to Putin. All these factors allow large Russian companies to be assertive in their relationship with the state and engage in successful lobbying activities.