RUSSIAN MODEL OF THE “LIBERAL EMPIRE” AND EXPERIENCE OF POST-REVOLUTIONARY GEORGIA
Abstract
In 2003, Anatoliy Chubais, the President of the Management Board of RAO EES (Unified Energy Systems) Russia and prominent Russian statesman and political figure, wrote that Russia should establish a “Liberal Empire” in the post-Soviet world. By calling it “liberal,” it was in the sense that the new empire should be based on economics rather than coercion wherein Russian companies (public and private) should take over the ownership of strategic companies in the former Soviet republics which, in the long run, must lead to the re-establishment of Moscow’s political influence over those countries.
The first step towards snaring Georgia in the Liberal Empire’s net was the summer 2003 takeover of the shares of the US-based company AES Silk Road by RAO EES. The Georgian government fully supported the entry of the Russian capital into the Georgian economy during the large-scale privatisation of government-owned enterprises after the Rose Revolution. The best example was the sale of Georgian gold and copper mining and processing companies to Stanton Equities, a subsidiary of the Russian holding group, Industrial Investors. Encouraged by the government’s affinity for Russian capital, the owners of the United Georgian Bank (privatised in 1995) sold it to Russia’s Vneshtorgbank of which 99-percent is owned by the Russian Government. This sale was the nationalisation of the United Georgian Bank by the Russian Government. This takeover came on the tails of Vneshtorgbank’s acquisition of Armenia’s Armsberbank. Gazprom is especially aggressive. It has made several attempts to take over the gas pipeline connecting Armenia with Russia. After America’s intervention, the Georgian Government’s talks with Gazprom came to an end which dealt a heavy blow to Russia’s plans. In late 2006, in the context of doubling the price for Russian gas, Gazprom once again tried to take over some of Georgia’s energy assets.
Regrettably, it is evident that Georgia is being culled into Russia’s Liberal Empire.
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ხადური ნოდარ. საქართველოს ეკონომიკა და რუსეთის “ლიბერალური” იმპერია. ეკონომიკური განვითარების აქტუალური პრობლემები თანამედროვე ეტაპზე. საქართველოს ეკონომისტთა სამეცნიერო-პრაქტიკული კონფერენციის მასალების კრებული. თბილისი, პაატა გუგუშვილის ეკონომიკის ინსტიტუტის გამომცემლობა, 2008.
