Updated 11/30/2010. I published my section of the research paper on Risk Analysis Study of FDI in Russia: Political Climate in Russia and FDI.
I feel like a squeezed lemon: exhausted and despondent. The whole weekend I have been working on my part 0f the group research paper on FDI in Russia. I had to cover Political Climate section of our Risk Analysis study.
Last weekend I digged out tons of material on the internet on the topic. This week I had to sift through all that raw stuff and identify what particular aspects of Political Climate in Russia need to be emphasized. The problem is that the whole paper is required to be 10 pages. So between the five of us in the group we need to produce about two pages of text each, not counting illustrations and bibliography. I probably would need at least five pages to touch and lightly elaborate upon all the aspects of Russian Political Climate that I personally consider relevant for the paper. I ended up with just over three pages. At least the write up has enough extras for trimming if necessary 
However the space constraints made me think what really needs to be included there. Of course, the easiest way would be to slam Putin for his strong-armed handling of opponents who happen to be business people. And the amendments to the Constiution in preparation of his comeback as president in 2012. And his constant references to the “Russia’s special/unique way” of governing, etc. I tried to keep my write up on the politics within the economic/business framework. It was not easy, but I mostly managed it. By the way, I found these well-written, very insightful books to be extremely helpful for understanding modern Russia and overall business and political climate there today:
- The Russia Balance Sheet
by Anders Aslund
- Russia’s Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed
by Anders Aslund
- The Piratization of Russia: Russian Reform Goes Awry
by Marshall Goldman
I did not read them from cover to cover, but the portions I read and skimmed through were very convincing. Today, by the way, was our group’s internal deadline for submitting a draft version of everyone’s section. Seems like I am the only one who managed to meet the deadline. Even though my personal deadline that I had set for myself was last weekend, as I wanted to free myself from this assignment earlier, so I could spend more productive time on in-class topics in Global Perspectives, and Managerial Accounting. That’s what I am going to do after finishing this post.
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