Recent decades have witnessed the remarkable rise of a kind of market authority almost as centralized as the state itself - two credit rating agencies, Moody's and Standard and Poor's. These agencies derive their influence from two sources. The first is the information content of their ratings....

The 1990s were a difficult decade for the rouble, the Soviet currency that in 1991 became the common currency for all 15 post-Soviet states, and by 1995 had become Russia's currency alone. Within Russia the rouble was systematically rejected by firms and citizens in favour of complicated barter...

<title>ABSTRACT</title> Although the energy trade is the single most important element of nearly all European countries' relations with Russia, Europe has been divided by both worldview and practice. Why, in the face of the common challenge of dependence on imported Russian gas, have national reactions to such...