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RésuméLa Russie semble menacée par la « malédiction des ressources », qui freine les réformes économiques de fond, rend le pays vulnérable aux à-coups des marchés, et structure le pouvoir autour de l’exploitation de la rente. Mais le cas russe est particulier : les éléments négatifs aujourd’hui décelables (corruption, autoritarisme...) doivent peu à la structure économique du pays, et tout compte fait, la Russie a jusqu’ici assez bien résisté aux pathologies d’ordinaire associées au développement économique fondé sur les ressources naturelles.

This article examines the impact of natural resource wealth on Russian political life. Viewed from a political perspective, what is striking is not how well Russia conforms to the stereotype of a resource-based political economy but how well it has (so far) resisted many of the institutional and political pathologies associated with the “resource curse”. There is little reason to think that Russia’s policy would be much healthier if it had less resource wealth. Nevertheless, it seems that Russia’s resource wealth does pose dangers to its political development. The crucial issue is not the nature of the resources themselves but the location of those resources in an institutional environment that is ill-equipped to cope with the pressures and problems that such wealth can create.