Russia's middle class: a status report

Overview

The emergence of a growing, confident and consumerist middle class is a major investment theme in emerging markets. For at least a decade after the end of the Soviet state, however, Russia looked extremely unpromising terrain in this respect. But Russia now presents a specific and exciting variation on the 'middle class' theme. This is due to the educated core of its society which, in the context of economic recovery, now appears almost as a 'ready-made' middle class, with attendant...