Russian policy towards the economy of occupied Ukrainian territories: crawling de-modernization

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a return to the “old” (imperial, colonial) wars aimed at seizing the neighboring state’s territories and resources, and the violent assimilation of its population. Russia has changed its objective from gaining political leverage over Ukraine to enlarging its territorial control, based on the geostrategic and geo-economic value of the land. This is because Russia was no longer able to employ its soft power, with a gray-zone conflict effectively keeping Ukraine in its geopolitical orbit. Drawing on fieldwork, process tracing, and document analysis, we explain the de-modernization of the political regime and the economies of previously and newly occupied territories of Ukraine, by the export of Russian institutions and the employment of tactics of societal destabilization.