Reform in the Rail and Electricity sectors in Russia: Restructuring, Competition and the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy

Abstract

The Russian Federation is in the process of making major structural changes to its railway and electricity sectors. Both sectors will be at least partly vertically disintegrated, with the aim of creating competition in the “upstream” sector while maintaining state ownership and control of the monopoly “grid”. This paper examines the details of reform and restructuring in the context of the international experience with reform and restructuring in these two sectors, and considers the role of the Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy in reform, both in the past as an “advocate for competition” within the government, and in the future as the guarantor of non-discriminatory access to the grids by non-integrated upstream producers.