Global crises as western conspiracies : Russian theories of oil prices and the ruble exchange rate

Abstract

Oil and gas stand at the center of Russia’s post-Soviet economy and have been crucial in the rapid economic growth under Putin in the 2000s. Though hugely unequal, the growth in incomes has caused a growth in national pride. Yet the Russian state’s reliance on fossil fuels has led to rapid demodernization. Politically isolated, economically shrinking, and culturally parochial, the state has produced or encouraged various modes of denial, wishful thinking, and self-glorification. With only a small percentage of the population involved in the lucrative oil and gas business, the carbon sources for political sovereignty have been notoriously unreliable. In response to the uncontrollable nature of global oil prices and the resulting instability of the ruble, various members of Putin’s elite have come to believe that their fluctuations are the result of an anti-Russian plot. This essay studies conspiratorial approaches to global oil prices and the ruble, revealing the changing worldviews that are promoted by Russia’s state-supported public sphere.