Yet Russia's aspiration to membership, which in turn opened up the prospect of joining the Paris-based OECD club of rich countries, demonstrated its desire for integration into theglobaleconomic system.
In principle globalisation can help to stabilise economies if they are at different stages of the cycle, but the very forces of globalintegration are likely to synchronise economic cycles more closely, so that downturns in different countries are more likely to reinforce one another.