“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

About Alena V. Ledeneva

Alena V. Ledeneva, author of Russia’s Economy of Favours (CUP, 1998), teaches at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. For a more detailed account of Russia’s informal economy, see her booklet How Russia Really Works, Centre for European Reform, April 2001.

Articles by Alena V. Ledeneva

This week’s front page editor

Francesc Badia i Dalmases is Editor and Director of democraciaAbierta.

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

Is Russia’s judicial system reformable?

Alena V Ledeneva and Oliver Carroll 12 March 2010

In this interview for oDRussia, Prof.Alena Ledeneva talks to Oliver Carroll about the prospects for judicial reform in Russia. Medvedev’s efforts amount to far more than rhetoric, argues Ledeneva. Her ongoing research into the subject suggests that they strike at the heart of Russia’s informal system of government.

How Russia really works

Alena V Ledeneva 16 January 2002

For Russia to achieve long-term success in the global economy, it will need transparent “rules of the game” to replace the dominance of “unwritten rules”. But to get from here to there, we must first understand how Russia works today.It’s becoming a commonplace to say that “in Russia, nothing is as strong as it seems, nor as weak”.