Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia w/ Charles Hecker

Join Charles Hecker at King’s Russia Institute for a talk about his new book, Zero Sum – a fascinating account of the highs and lows of doing business in post-Soviet Russia.

When the hammer and sickle came down in late 1991, Russia’s feverish new market opened for business. From banking to breweries, sectors emerged out of nowhere, in a country that had never had a functioning economy. For the next three turbulent decades, a wild, proto-capitalist free-for-all transformed Russian society.

Then, in 2022, Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The market started to collapse; Western firms fled Moscow’s skyscrapers. No country this large had ever remade itself so dizzyingly – now, just as dramatically, it was over. The intervening decades had seen phenomenal successes and crushing failures; the creation and destruction of enormous fortunes. How did it all happen?

Zero Sum brings to life the complex, vivid colour of one of the greatest experiments in the history of global commerce. What have businesses learnt—or failed to learn—from this adventure, both about Russia and about dynamics between countries and companies in the face of relentless change?

The event is taking place in room 1.03, Bush House North East wing.

SPEAKER

Charles Hecker is the author of Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia. Prior to writing Zero Sum, Charles was a partner at Control Risks, the international, specialist risk consultancy. For eight years, Charles was the managing partner of the firm’s Moscow office. He was later a co-head of Control Risks’ geopolitical risk consulting practice.

Prior to working at Control Risks, Charles was a journalist in Russia for The Moscow Times and in Florida for The Miami Herald. Charles has a BA in Russian and Soviet Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the Russian Research Center (now the Davis Center) at Harvard University.