The goal of this assignment to circumscribe, outline and annotate the relevant literature that addresses this research question:

How has the rise of the oligarchs contributed to the economic and business environment in Russia during the 2000s?

Good grammar, use of citations, neatness and spelling is also required.

1.You should be able to identify at least a dozen references to scientific literature for any given research topic (some relevant ones are attached) and more specifically, studies related to your question. When the literature that you are

reviewing seems to cite itself more than new literature, then you have probably reached a saturation point. This is what is meant by circumscribing a body of literature.

2.Do not get boxed into one disciplinary or one journal's perspective; at the same time, a single salient journal may provide a central forum or an ongoing discourse about a contentious topic, in which case, you may wish to track the evolution of the topic within this sub-community of scholarship.

3.A reference may be as short as a citation in a footnote; it also may require a paragraph or more of development. The primary criterion for how much you relate about a particular study is relevance to your research question. In other words, you must have your question specified before you can identify the relevant literature. Thus, the way you formulate your question, the scope you set and how

you intend to address it largely dictate the relevance of other studies. More detailed discussion may be required to explain the relevance of a source if it is not obvious.

Remember, your literature review should focus on what is known about your research question, and through your review you seek to illuminate the gaps or what remains unknown. In other words, your research question should frame your literature review.

By identifying what is known and not known relevant to your research problem, you will be providing evidence in support of your proposed solution to the gap.

Here are some questions to ask in developing your literature review keeping in mind that the measure against which you assess your responses is your specific research question.

1.What do we already know about the stated problem (DV) or puzzle?

2.Is the problem well defined and bounded?

3.What are the characteristics of the key concepts or the main explanatory variables (IVs)?

4.What are the assumed or hypothesized relationships between these key concepts or variables?

5.What do the existing theories / studies say about these relationships?

6.What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?

7.Does the identified research question highlight a gap from the reviewed literature?

8.What contribution can your research of the question be expected to make?

The sources attached may be used as well as others of your choosing, as long as they are scholarly literature sources, not website or news articles please and 12 different sources (at least) need to be used .