Russia’s rich and powerful businessmen known as the Oligarchs can be as influential in setting the country’s economic and political agenda as the government, according to University of Oregon Russian specialist Alan Kimball. "But Americans tend to confuse market issues with political issues," says Kimball. "We seem to support radical marketization and privatization and to ignore vital areas of political or institutional democratization. As a result, when we see important political activity in Russia¾ especially when it happens at a time of economic difficulty¾ we often interpret it as chaos." Kimball says current efforts to oust Russian President Boris Yeltsin are a signal that the country is undergoing a major political transformation. "If the Russian Parliament is successful in winning back some of Yeltsin’s power, the government is likely to become more stable, not less stable," he explains. But, Kimball says, Western journalists who focus on that power struggle as they examine Russia’s current economic crisis should look, instead, at corporate power. Marketization and privatization have created a social force that can threaten or promote democracy. Democracy and capitalism are not the same thing, nor are they always compatible, Kimball says. "They have corporate power in spades in Russia," he says, "and it’s controlled by the Oligarchs, who are not always under the thumb of Yeltsin’s clique." Kimball argues that economic reform in Russia eventually will need to include the Oligarchs if it is be effective. SOURCE: Alan Kimball, director of the UO Russian and East European Studies Center, (541) 346-4813; e-mail <kimball@oregon.uoregon.edu>.

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