ABSTRACT

Bringing the literature on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state capitalism in conversation with studies on offshore financial centers (OFCs), this paper dissects the post-2000 internationalization of Russian SOE Gazprom via the OFC of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Not adhering to the conventional financial logics of private firms, nor exclusively following political orders of the Kremlin, Gazprom is one of the exemplary state-capital hybrids of the new state capitalism. Where Gazprom steadily increased Russia’s geopolitical leverage over Europe’s energy needs prior to the 2022 military invasion of Ukraine, we stress that “it takes two to tango”, as the internationalization of Gazprom could not have occurred without active and passive help of capitalist states elsewhere. We argue that the Netherlands functions as a transnational capitalist state in the service of foreign capital, including state capital, with Amsterdam’s corporate services providers having long provided the legal stepping stones and corporate respectability enabling Gazprom to expand internationally. In this sense, the prevalent “othering” of SOEs and state capital neglects how the global ascent of state capitalism could not have happened without dedicated assistance orchestrated in leading Western OFCs.

摘要

本文将有关国有企业 (SOE) 和国家资本主义的文献与离岸金融中心 (OFC) 的研究相结合，剖析了 2000 年后俄罗斯国有企业俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司 (Gazprom) 通过荷兰阿姆斯特丹 OFC 实现的国际化。俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司不遵循私营企业的传统金融逻辑，也不完全遵循克里姆林宫的政治命令，是新国家资本主义的典型国家资本混合体之一。在 2022 年军事入侵乌克兰之前，俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司稳步提高了俄罗斯对欧洲能源需求的地缘政​​治影响力，我们强调“需要两个人才能探戈”，因为如果没有其他资本主义国家主动和被动的帮助，俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司的国际化就不可能实现。我们认为，荷兰作为一个为外国资本（包括国家资本）服务的跨国资本主义国家，阿姆斯特丹的企业服务提供商长期以来一直为俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司的国际扩张提供了合法的垫脚石和企业声誉。从这个意义上说，普遍存在的国有企业和国家资本的“他者化”忽视了如果没有西方领先的有金融公司精心策划的专门援助，国家资本主义就不可能在全球范围内崛起。