Final Review Flashcards
washington consensus
Created by John Williamson in 1989
Originally a set of 10 economic policy prescription to constitute the “standard” reform package to help crisis-wracked developing countries (namely Latin america)
Constitutes institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and the U.S. Treasury Department
Policies in areas such as macroeconomic stabilization, economic opening with respect to trade and investment, expansion of market forces within the domestic economy
Used in the sense to promote neoliberalism
Used more broadly to describe the general shift towards free market policies that followed the displacement of Keynesianism in 1970s
loans for shares
part of the post-soviet reforms that resulted in large scale privatization of russian state-owned assets.
Notable industries included industrial, energy, and financial sectors. Took place under Boris Yeltsin (assumed presidency after dissolution, propped up by American funding and involvement.)
Due to severe fiscal deficit, Yeltsin administration adopted “loans for shares” a program by which shares of state assets were “leased” through auctions in exchange for financial loans. Auctions were rigged, lacked competition, and were largely controlled by oligarchs who agreed on buying certain companies ahead of time. Very low prices.
boris yeltsin
First elected president of the Russian federation after the dissolution of the soviet union and resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.
local tsars
From what I found online, some regions in Russia Post-collapse became somewhat autonomous during Yeltsin’s time in power by illegally excluding political opponents and killing rival journalists.
black sea fleet
idk
august 1998 collapse
On 17 August 1998, the Russian government devalued the ruble, defaulted on domestic debt, and declared a moratorium on repayment of foreign debt
not one inch eastward
U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on, into 1991
turkmenbashi
Ruler of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, came to power in Turkmenistan following the collapse. Proclaimed himself Turkmenbashi.
Essentially the GOAT of Personality Cults
Raised massive giant statues of himself, renamed the months after his family
Implemented several bizarre laws e.g. no long hair or beards for men, all gold teeth must be removed, etc.
Nationalized country, rigged elections, jailed/killed journalists
arc of instability
Ethnic conflict, civil or interstate wars all along Russian periphery. Caused an explosion of refugees, drug trafficking, arms running, religious terrorism (especially Islamic). The Soviet Union had strongly protected borders; after the fall the exterior borders became porous.
power of sibera pipeline
Pipeline under construction from the gasfields of eastern siberia to the chinese border in the south-east.
Considered “Russia’s most ambitious, costly and geopolitically critical energy project since the fall of the Soviet Union, and represents a $55bn bet on uncharted territory by the world’s biggest gas company.”
Large gamble by russia on china’s demand for gas
yukos (oil company)
OJSC “Yukos Oil Company was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Bank Menatep during the controversial “loans for shares” auctions of the mid 1990s.
Between 1996 and 2003 Yukos became one of the biggest and most successful Russian companies, producing 20% of Russia’s oil output
In October 2003, Khodorkovsky—by then the richest man in Russia and 16th richest man in the world—was arrested, and the company was forcibly broken up for alleged unpaid taxes shortly after and declared bankrupt in August 2006.[1] Courts in several countries later ruled that the real intent was to destroy Yukos and obtain its assets for the government, and act politically against Khodorkovsky
zvaid gamsakhurdia
Zviad Gammsakhurdia was a Georgian politician, dissident, scholar, and writer who became the first democratically elected President of Georgia in the post-Soviet era
“Geoorgia for the Georgians”
pro nato, pro western
kuchmagate
Kuchma (Ukrainian President) had secret recordings about fixing trials, corruption in government contracts. A journalist, Grigory Gongadze, disappeared and was murdered; federal police came at night and took all the evidence to Kiev in order to cover up Kuchma.
maidan (euromaidan)
Wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine Independence Square (maidan Nezalezhnosti) in Kiev
Protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government’s decision to suspend the signing of an agreement with EU instead choosing closer ties to Russia
Protests soon widened with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government
Protests were fueled by the perception of “widespread government corruption”, “abuse of power” and “violation of human rights in Ukraine”
viktor yanukovych
president of Ukraine from 2010 to his exile in 2014 during the “revolution of dignity” run by Euromaidan protesters over failure to sign a pro eu trade agreement, favoring instead to have closer ties with russia
Originally ran for president in 2004, however election was accused of corruption, electoral fraud, and voter intimidation. Resulted in protests and the election of Viktor yushchenko
