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Daniel, the stories regarding Russian corruption are greatly exaggerated in US media [which, of course, doesn't mean there isn't any]. The book by Phillips explains why: this isn't about anti-Russian/anti-American politics, there are real and valid business reasons behind this. Also, do not dismiss Phillips as "one of those" authors. Far from it. Following your logic we shouldn't be building factories in China (because they're commies) and we shouldn't be investing in Iraq (because they're crazy Muslims). American economy, and the super-power status that comes with it, had been built on two things: exploration of oil as a new energy medium and devastating world wars in Europe that crippled competitors, namely UK. But we aren't #1 oil producer anymore, soon we won't be #2 as well, meanwhile the world oil production has stopped growing 2 years ago, thus we need something else. We've tried at least one "new thing", look at our attempt to become the center of world's finance, but failed. Why not become the global dominating power at computation and information processing? Why not take advantage of American universities, cheap Russian electricity, whatever it takes, to find something, besides oil and finance, to power US economy for years to come? |
Russia nationalized Yukos. The argument that the prices were too low are silly. It was over a decade ago when resources in the former USSR were priced low. Things like this happen after governments fall.
Daniel was just saying that there was an element of risk that makes investors afraid when countries nationalize sectors of their economies.