Pekka Sutela is Adjunct Professor at the Aalto University School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland; Nonresident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, USA and President for 2012 of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies. He has published widely in economics and the Soviet and Russian economies.

• 1. Introduction: Burden of the Past 2. The Putin Regime 3. Economic Growth 4. Energy 5. Money, Banking and Monetary Policy 6. Welfare 7. Epilogue: Russia’s Response to the 2008 Crisis

"This is the best available book on the contemporary Russian economy. In case that sounds like faint praise, let me add that it is, by any standards, excellent. It is economically highly literate but clear to the non-specialist; Pekka Sutela’s command of a wide range of both western and Russian sources is admirable; and the text is full of judicious assessments based on evidence that is clearly presented and carefully weighed." - Philip Hanson, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House; International Affairs 88: 5, 2012‘Professor Pekka Sutela stands out as one of the world’s most knowledgeable scholars focused on the Russian economy, both in Soviet times and the present. In this new book, he displays his erudition with his impressive reading of both the Russian and international literature... Sutela’s greatest strength is to penetrate what has really happened in the Russian economy and welfare, and the book offers a complex and realistic view of how output may have developed during the transition... To conclude, this is an excellent, empirical book about the Russian economy under Putin, the best book on that topic to date, a "must-read" for serious experts, and a mine of data and sources. It is a sophisticated book for specialists rather than a light read for a broader audience.’ - Anders Åslund, Eurasian Geography and Economics, No. 4 (2012)'The book helps to explain, in an accessible way, high-level judicial politics in Yeltsin's tumultuous Russia.' - Alexei Trochev, The Russian Review, April 2013, Vol.72, No.2