Russian banking: Crisis or rent-seeking?

A prominent Western specialist on the Russian economy presents an up-to-date overview of the country's banking sector. The focus of his commentary is the potential banking crisis in light of current (November 1996) economic developments. After tracing the evolution of Russia's commercial banks, the author discusses their profit-oriented activities and evaluates the chances for a banking crisis. A succinct analysis of the sector's relations with the state is provided in the concluding section.