He is the author of Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy.

We talk about why “pivots to Asia” are so hard: both for the Russians, and perhaps for other great powers considering the same policy.Ĭhris Miller is an assistant professor of international history at The Fletcher School at Tufts University and co-director of the school’s Russia and Eurasia Program. In this interview, Chris and I talk about Russia’s engagement with the Far East, stretching from its initial forays on the Pacific Coast of North America through to the present day. We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin,Ĭhris Miller (Harvard University Press, June 2021)Ĭhris Miller’s We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin studies many attempts to chart an Asian policy-from bold imperial dreams of a thriving Russian Far East to Soviet efforts to inspire the developing world through soft power-and why all these policies ended up disappointing their drafters. Yet these Russian “pivots to Asia” often ended soon after they began, with outcomes far more limited than what those who launched them hoped to achieve. Russia’s vast holdings east of the Urals have often inspired those who led Russia to look eastward for national glory, whether through trade, soft power, or outright force. Thus, Putinomics at once analyzes Russia's political economy in a way that nonspecialists can comprehend and complicates our understanding of contemporary Russia.Russia’s position between Europe and Asia has led to differing conceptions of “what Russia is” to its leaders. While many scholars have long agreed that Russia has combined reasonably successful macroeconomic policies with mediocre micro policies, Miller argues that this dichotomy has not seeped very far into public debate. While acknowledging that part of Putin's successes - above all, quadrupling per capita GDP in just a decade and a half - can be attributed to cashing in on high oil prices, Miller details the government policies that have also been fundamental to Russia's growth, which has outpaced and outperformed comparable petro-states like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Miller argues that despite Russia's corruption, cronyism, territorial expropriation, and over-dependency on oil as an economic driver, Putin's economic strategy has functioned far more effectively than most Westerners realize. In Putinomics, Chris Miller examines the making of Russian economic policy since Vladimir Putin took power in 1999.

Putinomics by Chris Miller