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Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia | 
| Author: Marshall I. Goldman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $17.33
You Save: $10.62 (38%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 6041
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 1
ISBN: 0195340736
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.47
EAN: 9780195340730
ASIN: 0195340736
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
In the aftermath of the financial collapse of August 1998, it looked as if Russia's day as a superpower had come and gone. That it should recover and reassert itself after less than a decade is nothing short of an economic and political miracle.
Based on extensive research, including several interviews with Vladimir Putin, this revealing book chronicles Russia's dramatic reemergence on the world stage, illuminating the key reason for its rebirth: the use of its ever-expanding energy wealth to reassert its traditional great power ambitions. In his deft, informative narrative, Marshall Goldman traces how this has come to be, and how Russia is using its oil-based power as a lever in world politics. The book provides an informative overview of oil in Russia, traces Vladimir Putin's determined effort to reign in the upstart oil oligarchs who had risen to power in the post-Soviet era, and describes Putin's efforts to renationalize and refashion Russia's industries into state companies and his vaunted "national champions" corporations like Gazprom, largely owned by the state, who do the bidding of the state. Goldman shows how Russia paid off its international debt and has gone on to accumulate the world's third largest holdings of foreign currency reserves--all by becoming the world's largest producer of petroleum and the world's second largest exporter. Today, Vladimir Putin and his cohort have stabilized the Russian economy and recentralized power in Moscow, and fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) have made it all possible.
The story of oil and gas in Russia is a tale of discovery, intrigue, corruption, wealth, misguidance, greed, patronage, nepotism, and power. Marshall Goldman tells this story with panache, as only one of the world's leading authorities on Russia could.
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| Customer Reviews:
Very interesting insight in today's Russia July 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book opens with the sentence "Russia once again an energy superpower and that is exactly what the book is about.
Russia was the most important non-American producer at the start of the 20th century, it was a very important producer during the Cold War years and it lost it completely in the break up of the Soviet Union.
After the desatrous privatisation under Jeltzin the industry was in tatters. Goldman describes clearly and with good analytical depth how under Putin the country slowly got its grip on its most important natural resource back. Needless to say that the methods used were heavy handed and certainly in a general sense morally and legally questionable. This is not new and the saga continues as we read in the news paper every day ( see e.g. the deleopments around the BP-TNK joint venture).
Goldman also analyzes the role the energy industry plays in the overall aim of Russia to be an important power once again. In particular Europeans should watch this with intensity as they are more and omore dependent on Russia for their energy, in particular gas.
In all, a good, readable and enjoyable analysis. The 5th star is missing for the technical flaws pointed out correctly bey another reviewer. Not hurting the conclusions but a bit sloppy indeed.
 Petrostate Review July 1, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Goldman's book, Petrostate was somewhat interesting and shed some light on the complexity of business and energy in Russia. His research and references were undeniable but at times (not to his fault) difficult to follow because of the many "smoke and mirrors" corporate structures of many Russian companies and individuals based there. The government is layered with backscratching which he points out brilliantly throughout.
Overall, the book gave me a better understanding of business in Russia and the size and scope of their global position in energy. Good read.
 Rife with factual errors June 19, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
As a student of Russian energy markets, I can confidently say that this book is rife with factual errors. Simple things like calling Iran one of the top gas exporters in the world (Iran doesn't export gas at all, it imports it, though Iran does have some of the largest gas reserves in the world); claiming that liquefied natural gas (LNG) often needs long-term contracts of "two years" to sell (usually needs contracts of 10-20 years); contending that OPEC regulated the oil market through production quotas from its founding in 1960 (the production quota system wasn't formally instituted until 1986-1987); etc. The conclusions that Goldman draws from his analysis are largely correct because he knows Russia well, but a lot of the (incorrect) detail he includes demonstrates an interested observer's - not an expert's - understanding of energy markets. If you are an interested observer, go ahead and buy this book. If you are a researcher, you should certainly corroborate the facts in this book.
Overall, the book is filled with detail, most of it correct but some not. I certainly learned something from reading it, things that had slipped under the radar, but I am not convinced that one should trust Marshall Goldman's grasp of energy markets.
 Preliminaries June 17, 2008
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
Goldman did a lecture for the Carnegie Council for Ethics in which he gives a summary of his book - available on Podcast and at the website ([...]). Highly recommended.
Russia's Rebirth May 21, 2008
5 out of 15 found this review helpful
Witht the recent "election" of Medvedev, this is a timely book that shows how powerful Russia really is. Putin's renationalization of the gas and oil industries has given Russia some truly astounding international leverage.
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