Trust, reciprocity and reputation in informal networks in post-Soviet Russia

This research explores the relationship between trust and informal networking using the example of blat/svyazi, simply translated as 'connections', in post-Soviet Russia. We find that a higher articulation of general trust does not reduce the trust in blat/svyazi, but rather both can coexist. Furthermore, the greater the importance a person ascribes to blat/svyazi, the greater the need to establish a reputation within his or her blat/svyazi network, and the greater the trust in blat/svyazi. Therefore, reputation has a mediating effect on trust in blat/svyazi. However, the more important reputation building is for a blat/svyazi-based network transaction as a guarantor for the transaction, the lower the trust in blat/svyazi. We assume that the latter mechanism takes effect due to the ambivalent nature that blat/svyazi developed during post-Soviet times, being today more cognitive trust-based, less social, and more money-centred.