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Selective support for certain businesses represented an important part of Russia’s anticrisis policy during the 2008–9 period. The officially stated purpose was to maintain the sustainability of certain “strategic” businesses. Using regression analysis, the author assesses the extent to which an enterprise’s inclusion on the “List of Strategic Organizations” was defined by its “social significance,” and to what extent by its affiliation with one of the sixteen largest Russian business groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports that the Russian businesses experience chronic shortages of working capital, and it is very hard for them to borrow from banks for this purpose. Commercial banks are unwilling to loan to individual independent or small enterprises, or they charge prohibitively high interest rates, since many banks are inclined to overestimate the credit risks and do not have the equity capital needed for long-term lending to enterprises. Systems for microlending and lending to small and medium-size businesses in Russia, where they exist, are found in very isolated areas.