Diverging and Harmonizing Corporate Governance in Russia

Abstract

Russian enterprises have experienced drastic changes since the financial crisis of 1998. Big businesses, including oligarchic groups, are the most dominant and influential forms. They include independent companies, corporate forms that integrate production and sales companies (specialized integrated business groups) and integrated business groups (the entire business belonging to specific industrial/non-industrial branches). These large groups emerged in the late 1990s when ownership and control were taken on by core companies (the holding companies) while government preserved its influence. With the economic recovery following the financial crisis, changes in ownership and control have occurred. While the integrated business groups continue to exist, their form has changed and the main industrial (energy) companies now occupy the core of the economy and power in it.1