The Donor That Came in from the Cold: OECD – Russian Engagement on Development Cooperation

Abstract

Soviet, later Russian, relations with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), notablyits Development Assistance Committee (DAC), have oscillated over the decades, along with profound shifts in the worldeconomic balance and in the relative strength of the Russian economy. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union rejectedMarshall Aid but later sought to join the OECD. While the OECD could have been a place to pursue East-West economicinterests and mutual benefits, political tensions limited the scope for collaboration. Toward the end of the Cold War, theSoviets sought increasing cooperation and this continued into the 1990s when the OECD played a key role in supportingthe former Soviet Union countries, especially the Russian Federation, and aiding their transition to a market economy. TheRussian Federation has since become a candidate for accession to the OECD, although this process has now been postponedbecause of political tensions related to Ukraine. This postponement does not preclude stronger collaboration in the area ofdevelopment cooperation.Development cooperation has been an area of both competitive and collaborative relations between the RussianFederation and OECD members. The DAC has its origins in U.S.-inspired attempts to counter the perceived threat of Sovietcommunist influence through aid by expanding and improving the collective aid effort of the West. The DAC collectedstatistics on Soviet bloc development assistance, the accuracy of which was always disputed, and succeeded in promotingonly limited in-country coordination between the Soviets and western donors. During the late 1980s, this began to change asthe Soviets struggled to maintain their development programs and sought ever more cooperation. Thereafter DAC membersbecame donors to the former Soviet Union. Twenty years later, the Russian Federation straddles a unique middle groundbetween developed and developing countries and has a re-emerging aid program. This article reviews Soviet/Russian-DACcooperation and suggests a 21st-century Russian-

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