> Financial Times
> February 25, 2006
> Kremlin seeks to boost power of aerospace and motor
> industries
> By Arkady Ostrovsky
>
> The government plans to inject $5bn into the
> automotive sector and $10bn into the new aerospace
> company. "It is a matter of pride and prestige for
> Russia to have its own auto industry," says Rory
> MacFarquhar, a Russia analyst at Goldman Sachs.
It's a matter of basic survival in the vicious jungle of neoliberalism, and a smart move on the part of the Putin government. The success of Airbus was built on three decades of state intervention, while state ownership has enabled VW and Renault-Nissan to thrive.
What Russia is doing is conceivably a model for Venezuela -- creating a petro-developmental state which funnels energy-rents into the domestic industrial base.
-- DRR