Over the past decade, Russia's attempted transition to a market economy has attracted a great deal of scholarly interest. Given the complexities at hand and the rather disappointing outcome, it is natural that debates have been acrimonious at times. Some have argued that we are witnesses to a great success; others, that we are seeing a monumental failure. A book that promises to deal with “building market institutions in Russia” might harbor yet another contribution to such debates, but that is not case. Timothy Frye is careful to note (on p. 12) that his book “does not attempt a holistic analysis of the process of economic and political reform in Russia.”