Earlier versions of most of the chapters in this book were presented at the VIIth World Congress of ICCEES (International Council for Central and East European Studies) in Berlin in July 2005. They have been revised and updated for this publication. It was decided to produce a book on this issue in view of its importance and topicality, the variety of opinions expressed by the authors, and the quality of their contribution to the debate. There are some minor discrepancies between the data cited by various contributors, e.g., for the value of oil and gas exports in particular years. This results from such factors as revision of official statistics as more data becomes available, differences between customs and balance of payments statistics, and the inclusion or otherwise of Belarus as an export destination. The official Russian statistical organization was known as Gosudarstvennii komitet po statistike (State Committee for Statistics – usually abbreviated to Goskomstat) until April 2004, when it was transformed into the Federal'naya sluzhba gosudarstvennoi statistike (Federal State Statistics Services – usually abbreviated to Rosstat). In this book it is generally referred to as Rosstat.