Stable Stagnation
The Economics of the Brezhnev and Putin Periods
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The second decade of the reign of Vladimir Putin recalls the “period of stagnation” in the Soviet Union from 1975 on. In Russia, the previous decade is considered the Soviet Union’s “golden age” to this day. Why economic growth subsided in the next ten years is just as controversial as the reason for the collapse of the Soviet economic system. The causes of economic stagnation in the second decade of Putin’s rule are easier to discern: a fall in oil prices and a lack of institutional reforms. Even if this period of stagnation persists, it does not necessarily have to end with a collapse of the economy and the regime.
(Osteuropa 5/2016, pp. 51–80)