Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy

Book Description

A searing portrait of a country in disarray and of the man at its helm, from “the bravest of Russian
journalists” (The New York Times)

Hailed as “a lone voice crying out in a moral wilderness” (New Statesman), Anna Politkovskaya made her name with her fearless reporting on the war in Chechnya. Now she turns her steely gaze on the multiple threats to Russian stability, among them Vladimir Putin himself.

Rich with characters and poignant accounts, Putin’s Russia depicts a far-reaching state of decay. Politkovskaya describes an army in which soldiers die from malnutrition, parents must pay bribes to recover their dead sons’ bodies, and conscripts are even hired out as slaves. She exposes rampant corruption in business, government, and the judiciary, where everything from store permits to bus routes to court appointments is for sale. And she offers a scathing condemnation of the ongoing war in Chechnya, where kidnappings, extra-judicial killings, rape, and torture are begetting terrorism rather than fighting it. Finally, Politkovskaya denounces both Putin, for stifling civil liberties as he pushes the country back to a Soviet-style dictatorship, and the West, for its unqualified embrace of the Russian leader.

Sounding an urgent alarm, Putin’s Russia is a gripping portrayal of a country in crisis and the testament of a great and intrepid reporter.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent! True to Life..........2007-10-01

A must read for all those contemplating on working, investing, living, or visiting Russia and before more authoritarian restrictions are implemented (or should I say the "New Soviet Russia" is completed?).

Ana Politkovskaya's book is a fast read, but the truthful descriptions may be shocking to some. For me, it brought back dark memories from my years working and living there. There is so much increadible [underlined] poverty outside the major cities (e.g., Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc.) and so much more she could have continued writing about... unfortunately, because there is no real free press anymore (& as far as I know, her books have never been published or sold in Russia) the majority of Russian citizens are misinformed and uninformed.

On the other hand, Russia is a vast and beautiful country and it's people (the "real" people) amiable, warm, and very hospitable (once they get to know you). The citizens want so much more for their country, but are afraid to make concrete changes in a unified manner, may not know how to move forward due to conditioning and oppression from the old and new regimes, or are terrified of reprisals. Thus, the current leadership is dismantling Russia's constitution, eliminating the opportunity for real democracy, and is building a "New Iron Curtain" behind the old one.

Again, a must read!

Good book. Great point. But it falls a bit short........2007-09-06

The AUTHOR'S NOTE states: "... this book is not an examination of Putin's policies. I am not a political analyst. I am just a person among many, a face in the crowd, like so many.... These are my immediate reactions, jotted down in the margins of life as it is lived in Russia today."

Well, Politkovskaya doesn't all together stick with this decree, but touches upon Putin's "policies" by way of presenting his lack of policy in helping his people.

There are many events detailed in this book: soldiers being beaten and tormented by their commanding officers. Family members trying to find out the truth about their loved one's death, or murder. Corruption plaguing the Russian judicial system. Yury Budanov's kidnapping of a young Chechen girl, her rape and murder trial. Examples of friends the author has known and how their lives (good and bad) have been affected by the changes in the wake of the New Russia. The gangster life being rife throughout Russia, given in the example of Pavel Anatolievich Fedulev. The storming of the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow during the "Nord-Ost" musical by Chechen terrorists wishing to end the war, and how the government unleashed an unknown gas that ended up killing 200 hostages. The waging of "Antiterrorist Operation Whirlwind" that caused the Chechen people living in Russia to be harassed, framed, and forced to sign confessions that they plotted the attack; many were sent to prison or lost their jobs. According to Politkovskaya it was "Putin's belief that an entire people must shoulder collective responsibility for the crimes committed by a few" pg 224. The hostage situation in the town of Beslan on the day of "Lineyka," the celebration of the beginning of school when many families were at the school. 100 people went missing and the government said that they fled with the terrorists (hu?).

One can't deny that something is happening in Russia. But I can't say I was won over with Politkovskaya's argument that Putin is entirely to blame for it's current state. This is partly due to the author's writing style, which must have been affected by the translation process (there are many words and phrases that come off sounding disjointed), which make for weak arguments. The stories Politkovskaya's shares with us are stories we outsiders have heard for a number of years under the old Soviet Union. Just because one has a new government everything cannot be expected to change quickly. It takes time. It does sound like Russia has reverted to old habits either because that's all its' leader's know, or it's their intentions to align themselves with communist ways in order to gain more power for themselves. The truth is, I don't know what progress has been made under Putin, and certainly you wont find any in Politkovskaya's book. The problem is that politics usually attract power and corruption. Place people with this tendency in a government rife with corruption and things are bound to fail. Unless Russia can find someone courageous enough to stand up to it, willing to put their life on the line, I fail to see how things will ever change.

One things for sure, I'm always amazed by the resilience of the Russian people. I always get a strong sense that they love their country dearly and want nothing more than to live in a free society where the rules are fair. Hopefully one day they will have this. Unfortunately the fact that Politkovskaya died for writing stories like this shows how far Russia still has to go in acheiving freedom.

Chapters:
"My Country's Army and Its Mothers"
"Our New Middle Ages, or War Criminals of All the Russias"
"Tanya, Misha, Lena, and Rinat: Where Are They Now?"
"How to Misappropriate Property with the Connivance of the Government"
"More Stories from the Provinces"
"Nord-Ost: The Latest Tale of Destruction"
"Akaky Akakievich Putin II"
"Postscripts"
"Notes"

Not Afraid to Speak the Truth.......2007-08-09

Choosing journalism as an occupation in modern day Russia can result in dangerous and often deadly consequences. Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist who chose such a career in spite of these potential risks. Fearless and honest, she refused to compromise her integrity as a journalist by writing nothing but the truth.
Working for one of the last liberal Moscow newspapers, "Novaya Gazeta", Politkovskaya committed herself to writing the truth about the war in Chechnya (which she openly and vehemently opposed), and the blatantly corrupt Russsian government.
In her third book, "Putin's Russia...", Politkovskaya exposes the instability of today's Russia due to the above mentioned corruption that infiltrates everything from business to politics to the military and to the court systems. Bribes are simply accepted as a way of life by bureaucrats and ordinary citizens alike. Although corruption and other forms of political and governmental "ugliness" exist in all countries, none exist to the extent witnessed in today's Russia. And for all of this Politkovskaya blames one man, Vladimir Putin (though she also places some blame on the western countries that have "bought into" the mask of democracy Putin wears during public appearances). Politkovskaya however, seeing through the guise, accurately defines Putin as a throwback from the past, as a ruthless, Soviet-style dictator.
All of Politkovskaya's "accusations" are supported by incontrovertible facts and examples. If nothing else, she was thorough in her research. She had no hidden agenda or score to settle in writing this or any of her books - she merely wanted to truth to be told.
Sadly, for telling the truth Anna Politkovskaya paid the ultimate price. On a Saturday afternoon in October 2006 she was shot twice in the head in the elevator of her apartment building while returning from grocery shopping. The shooting was, without a doubt, a contract killing and was probably approved, if not ordered, by Putin himself.
Though disturbing and sometimes difficult to stomach (as the truth often is), this book is a must read for all Russophiles and/or those just interested in the truth about modern day Russia. In addition, I highly recommend her three other books as well - "A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya", "A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya" (neither of which were ever allowed to be published in Russia), and "A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia".
K. Larson Amador

A modern Solshenitzyn.......2007-08-09

The book is listing case after case of atrocities of the russian army in Chechnia and the governments cover ups. The book displays systematic abuse of power and documents, that Russia is not a de facto democracy. This is tough reading and seamingly good journalism too. We cannot verify the reliability of the sources.
In the long run, the monotone listing of cases renders a numbness to the situation. But it is with out doubt interesting and a must read.

Democracy by Anna Politkovskaya .......2007-06-15

Based on Basaev and Sauda Arabia rules .

Average customer rating:

Interesting interviews
German-language review of first Russian edition (Moscow: Vagrius 2000)
Insightful
Insight into political training
oprah by the volga

First Person
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin , Nataliia Gevorkian , Natalia Timakova , A. V. Kolesnikov , and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1586480189

Amazon.com

The product of six interviews conducted by Russian journalists (and translated into English by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick), First Person is a book-length Q&A session in which Russian president Vladimir Putin discusses his childhood, his life as a spy, and his surprisingly rapid rise as a politician in the 1990s. Parts of this unusual autobiography are plainly banal (he weighs 165 pounds and likes beer), but interspersed throughout are candid comments by one of the world's most powerful men. Putin admits that he didn't know much about Stalin's violent purges in the 1930s when he joined the KGB ("I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education"). He also scolds Soviet leaders for the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia during the cold war: "These were major mistakes. And the Russophobia that we see in Eastern Europe today is the fruit of those mistakes." At another point, he expresses frustration with some of the things critics have said about him: "Why have they made up so much about me? It's complete nonsense!" On the war in Chechnya, he is predictably defensive: "I was convinced that if we didn't stop the extremists right away, we'd be facing a second Yugoslavia on the entire territory of the Russian Federation--the Yugoslavization of Russia.... We are not attacking. We are defending ourselves." There's also an interview with his wife, who, when asked if her husband ever gets drunk, responds: "There hasn't been any of that." (After Yeltsin, this is apparently of concern to Russians.) The interviewers also ask her whether he ever looks at other women. She replies with a question of her own, intriguingly: "Well, what sort of man would he be, if he weren't attracted by beautiful women?" But Putin is, appropriately, the main show. Readers interested in Russian politics will want to review the final pages closely, as the president discourses on contemporary topics. Confronted with tough questions about Russia's treatment of a journalist who filed negative stories about Chechnya, Putin says, "We interpret freedom of expression in different ways." That's a KGB man talking--and yet another reason Putin is worth watching. --John J. Miller

Book Description

The astonishingly frank and revealing self-portrait of the most powerful man in Russia, President Valdimir Putin.

Who is this Vladimir Putin? Who is this man who suddenly--overnight and without warning--was handed the reins of power to one of the most complex, formidable, and volatile countries in the world? How can we trust him if we don't know him?

First Person is an intimate, candid portrait of the man who holds the future of Russia in his grip. An extraordinary compilation of over 24 hours of in-depth interviews and remarkable photographs, it delves deep into Putin's KGB past and explores his meteoric rise to power. No Russian leader has ever subjected himself to this kind of public examination of his life and views. Both as a spy and as a virtual political unknown until selected by Boris Yeltsin to be Prime Minister, Putin has been regarded as man of mystery. Now, the curtain lifts to reveal a remarkable life of struggles and successes. Putin's life story is of major importance to the world.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting interviews.......2007-06-13

I am very interested in Russian politics and especially in Vladimir Putin. This book caught my eye because it is 28 hours of interviews with him about many different subjects. It was a quick read and my only complaint is that I read it so quickly. One of the more personal books I have read about Putin. I recommend it highly.

German-language review of first Russian edition (Moscow: Vagrius 2000).......2006-11-19

Die Frage "Wer ist Mr. Putin?" bewegt seit Boris Jelzins überraschendem Rücktritt am 31.12.1999 die Welt. Die ausführlichen Gesprächsaufzeichnungen von drei russischen Journalisten aus dem Frühjahr 2000 geben nur teilweise eine Antwort auf die Frage. Sie verbergen ebenso viel, wie sie aufdecken.
Es wird in den Interviews noch einmal eine Besonderheit Putins deutlich, die viele Beobachter schon zuvor bemerkt hatten: die bizarre Zufälligkeit von Putins steiler Karriere und seine politische Unerfahrenheit im Augenblick seiner Amtsübernahme. Dies würde im Russischen durch die Konstruktion "slutschajnyj tschelowek" (zufälliger Mensch) wiedergegeben werden. Normalerweise bedeutet im traditionell hierarchiebetonten und elitistischen russischen politischen Diskurs eine Charakterisierung als "slutschajnyj tschelowek" das Absprechen jeglicher Kompetenz für die Lösung der jeweiligen Aufgaben. Diesen Nachteil schien Putin sowohl mit seiner mythologisierten Vergangenheit als KGB-Mitarbeiter (die hier auch weitgehend im Dunkeln bleibt) als auch mit dem Image eines früheren Vertrauten des verstorbenen ehemaligen Bürgermeisters von Sankt Petersburg Anatolij Sobtschak wettzumachen. Vor allem wird in dem Buch noch einmal deutlich, wie eng die Ernennung Putins zum Premierminister und seine Profilierung in dieser Funktion mit dem Tschetschenienkrieg verbunden war. Und dies, obwohl die Anleitung der in Tschetschenien tätigen "Machtorgane" (silowye organy) an und für sich direkt dem Präsidenten obliegt. De facto schien Putin mehr noch als seine zahlreichen Vorgänger bereits vor Jelzins Rücktritt das Zepter in Rußland in die Hand genommen zu haben.
Obwohl eine Reihe von Putins Aussagen in den Interviews in bezug auf Demokratie, Rechtsstaat und Marktwirtschaft durchaus ermutigend klingen und er sich im Großteil des Buches als ausgewogener "Mann der Tat" gibt, bleibt ein Eindruck von Unberechenbarkeit. Auf das Thema Tschetschenien angesprochen, wechselt der sonst beherrschte Putin zu apokalyptischen Visionen ("globale Katastrophe", S. 136), radikalem Isolationismus ("Wir brauchen keinerlei [internationale] Vermittler." S. 158) und missionarischem Eifer ("meine historische Mission", S. 133). Er scheint den Leser für dumm verkaufen zu wollen, wenn er sich als selbstloser "Mann fürs Grobe" ausgibt: "Ich ging [im August 1998] davon aus, daß ich [das Auseinanderfallen des Landes] selbst um den Preis meiner politischen Karriere [verhindern] muß." (S. 133)
Die ganze Passage zum Tschetschenien-Abenteuer wirkt phantastisch: Putin beschwört das Bild eines vom winzigen Tschetschenien tödlich bedrohten Rußland. Die von ihm an anderer Stelle angemahnte "Präsumption der Unschuld" vergißt er, wenn er - ohne das Vorliegen einschlägiger Beweise, zumindest zum Zeitpunkt des Interviews - die Tschetschenen für die Bombenanschläge in Moskau, Bujnaksk und Wolgodonsk verantwortlich macht. Selbst wenn er mit seinen Anschuldigungen Recht behalten sollte, so steht die Zahl der mutmaßlich von islamistischen Terroristen getöteten russischen Zivilisten in keinem Verhältnis zu den tausenden zivilen Opfern der russischen "antiterroristischen Operationen" seit 1994. An anderer Stelle gibt sich Putin, abweichend von seinen früheren Andeutungen, ähnlich uneinsichtig, wenn es um die Rolle der NATO in den Ost-West-Beziehungen oder um den Jugoslawienkonflikt geht. Auch seine merkwürdig distanzierte Beurteilung der Tätigkeit seines früheren Ziehvaters Anatolij Sobtschak wirkt befremdlich.
Während Putin hoffen kann, mit seinen unsensiblen Statements insbesondere zu Tschetschenien und Jugoslawien beim durch jahrelange Gehirnwäsche emotional aufgepeitschten russischen Durchschnittsbürger auf offene Ohren zu treffen, dürfte er sich mit diesem Buch in bezug auf seine aufgeklärte russische und potentielle westliche Leserschaft keinen Gefallen getan haben.

Insightful.......2006-07-31

First person is an easy and interesting book to read. The format, question & answer, actually made the book more interesting. We only really learn what Putin wants us to learn about him. However, Putin seems to answer in an honest and straight-forward manner. A must read for anyone interested in world affairs, world leaders, or Russia.

Insight into political training.......2006-03-28

I found this book provided a much needed insight into Putin and it assists when trying to cut through the politics of popular culture. With an extremely challenging road ahead for this country it is important not to loose sight of the men who assert power

oprah by the volga.......2005-10-01

The American Presidential system, for all its faults, is relatively open. Because this is not the case in Russia, any information we can get on President Vladimir Putin has to be particularly welcome. First Person, the product of six interviews conducted by Russian journalists with the Russian leader, gives us that information in Putin's own words.

Putin likes beer and dislikes Chechen separatists; he is saddened by Stalin's excesses and proud of his own work in the KGB; he is sorry that the Soviet Union put Hungary and Czechoslovakia to the sword but delighted that today's glorious Russian Army is teaching the Chechens a lesson. Putin, like Mother Russia herself, is a mass of contradictions.

Unlike Boris Yeltsin, Putin is a sober and industrious man. This is no bad thing in a land where vodka abuse has slashed ten years off the life expectancy of the ordinary Russian since the collapse of the evil empire. Although abstemious, Putin frankly admits that he is, at heart, a product of Soviet indoctrination.

This is not that surprising from someone who worked for the KGB for 20 years and ended up taking over Yeltsin's entire secret service network. Russia today is as shadowy and secretive as it was when John Le Carre wrote his novels about Putin's KGB workmates. In those days, the KGB were our definite bad guys. Now however, the Russian Mafia have made the big league, the Caucasus are in flames and the Russian nuclear navy is more a threat to its crewmen than it is to the United States and her allies. Times have changed.

Russia is in obvious need of law and order. Traditionally, law and order was achieved in Russia by generous applications of the heavy hand. Certainly, Lenin, Stalin and Peter the Great, Putin's hero, were never afraid to bite the bullet - or to use it for that matter. Putin can probably be no different. Russia is bankrupt, law and order has broken down, Yugoslavia and her other traditional allies have been brought low, neighboring Poland is on the verge of entering NATO and Islamic unrest is rising on her southern flanks. And Japan wants her Northern islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and Habomai back.

What is to be done? One solution would be to sell these islands back to the Japanese for the highest attainable price and to link it to massive Japanese aid for the Russian Far East. This would help to stem the demographic and military threats China poses to Siberia. A similar deal will probably have to be done with the United States. Russia will have to scrap her nuclear arsenal in return for another king's ransom and let NATO do as it pleases in the rest of Europe. Putin will have to surrender land and power projection capabilities for hard cash.

With its flanks in some kind of order, Putin could then concentrate his resources on saving Russia. But there's the rub. Putin and the problems besetting him just do not have modern Western equivalents. The nearest American President to him is Honest Abe Lincoln, who, like Putin, also worked his way up from humble beginnings. Although Lincoln also fought a major war on his Southern flank to preserve his nation's unity, he had the advantage of being able to marshal a vibrant, disciplined and modern economy behind him. Putin has no such luxury. He has his KGB contacts, his dispirited army and, as the sinking of the Kursk showed, the world's media and human rights groups breathing down his neck. Putin must now worry about media ratings as well as Chechen suicide bombers.

Even Putin's moral hold on power is tenuous enough. His Presidential campaign was beset by large-scale fraud. More than 1.3 million new voters appeared between the State Duma elections on 19 December 1999 and the presidential election in March 2000. These were not "dead souls", as described in Gogol's famous novel of that name, but "new-born souls" who were given the vote and who all voted for Putin. More than 50% of Chechens, who survived Putin's bombing campaign, also voted for him. Either that or the vote was rigged!

Electoral fraud is only one of his more minor headaches. Putin must use books like this to don a human face much the same way that Al Gore and George W. Bush have to display their witticisms on the Oprah Winfrey show. American wannabe Presidents can joke and cajole their way through such shows - as can Japanese leaders like the late Mr. Obuchi. They can do this because they are leaders of modern and vibrant economies. This interesting book is the beginning of such a process in Russia. However, it would be best if Putin concentrated on his nation's many economic problems. Oprah Winfrey can wait.

Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy?

Average customer rating:

Too many factual errors
Praise for Inside Putin's Russia
Nice try, but no cigar.
From Chaos to Order and Beyond
Detail rich, but substance poor

Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy?
Andrew Jack
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195177975

Book Description

Written by Andrew Jack, the Moscow Bureau Chief of the Financial Times, here is a revealing look at the meteoric rise of Vladimir Putin and his first term as president of Russia. Drawing on interviews with Putin himself, and with a number of the country's leading figures, as well as many ordinary Russians, Jack describes how the former KGB official emerged from the shadows of the Soviet secret police and lowly government jobs to become the most powerful man in Russia. The author shows how Putin has defied domestic and foreign expectations, presiding over a period of strong economic growth, significant restructuring, and rising international prestige. Yet Putin himself remains a man of mystery and contradictions. Personally, he is the opposite of Boris Yeltsin. A former judo champion, he is abstemious, healthy, and energetic, but also evasive, secretive, and cautious. Politically, he has pursued a predominantly pro-western foreign policy and liberal economic reforms, but has pursued a hardline war in Chechnya and introduced tighter controls over parliament and the media and his opponents, moves which are reminiscent of the Soviet era. Through it all, Putin has united Russian society and maintained extraordinarily high popularity. Jack concludes that Putin's "liberal authoritarianism" may be unpalatable to the West, but is probably the best that Russia can do at this point in her history. Inside Putin's Russia digs behind the rumors and speculation, illuminating Putin's character and the changing nature of the Russia he rules. Andrew Jack sheds light on Putin's thinking, style and effectiveness as president. With Putin's second term just beginning, this invaluable book offers important insights for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of Russia.

Customer Reviews:

Too many factual errors.......2007-09-15

In my opinion Andrew Jack's book has some interesting passages, but the book seems to contain too many factual errors to get a high score.

I'll restrain myself to the following example: On page 18 of the paperback edition he refers to the spy-cases of Aleksandr Nikitin and Grigory Pasko, who according to Mr. Jack were two navy journalists who reported on radioactive waste in respectively the Baltic Sea and the Pacific Ocean. They were, says Mr. Jack, "released from prison, but not technically acquitted" (and implicitly not convicted either). In this short passage there is no less than four factual errors.

First, Aleksandr Nikitin was not a navy journalist, but a former nuclear engineer/submarine officer, who later was the head of the nuclear safety inspection of the Russian Ministry of Defence, a position he quit in 1992.

Second, Mr. Nikitin co-wrote a report on radioactive contemination from the Russian Northern Fleet, which is based on the Kola Peninsula. Thus, his writings did not have anything to do with the Baltic Sea, but rather with the Barents Sea.

Third, Mr. Nikitin was imprisoned and charged with treason through espionage in February 1996. He was released from prison in December that year, and acquitted of all charges first by the St. Petersburg City Court in December 1999, then by the Collegium of Criminal Cases of the Russian Supreme Court in April 2000, and finally by the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court in September 2000.

Mr. Pasko on the other hand was convicted for treason through espionage by the Court of the Russian Pacific Fleet in December 2001, but was released from prison after having served two thirds of his four-year's conviction (including time spent in pretrial detention) in January 2003.

I hope for the sake of the book that its other sections contains a little less errors. But I am not by any means convinced.

Praise for Inside Putin's Russia.......2006-03-13

"[T]he best book ever about Alger Hiss." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Andrew Jack has given us a vivid, sophisticated picture of Russia's political and economic culture under President Vladimir Putin. Jack offers a penetrating analysis of Putin's contradictory path as a modernizer of Russia--and of where this path might lead." -- Mark Medish, former Senior Director for Russian Affairs, U.S. National Security Council

"Inside Putin's Russia provides astute and accurate observations on what Russia has become under President Putin. In a lucid and highly readable book, Jack shows devastatingly how Putin has systematically curtailed democracy in Russia, while capitalism has triumphed. No other book gives such a clear feel of Putin's Russia." -- Anders Åslund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

"Andrew Jack's work is a valuable contribution to the literature on Russia at the start of the 21st Century: intelligent, fair-minded, and enlivened by the author's experiences as a journalist in Russia, and by his meetings with some of the leading figures there." -- Anatol Lieven

"An extraordinary book, packed with information and fresh insights. Part detective story, part cultural history, part psychodrama--I couldn't put it down." -- Cass Sunstein

"[T]his innovative and brilliant new book...provide[s] the final unmasking of Alger Hiss, and, one hopes, put an end once and for all to the campaign waged on the traitor's behalf." -- National Review

"If you accept Hiss's guilt, as most historians now do, you will profit from G. Edward White's supplementary speculations about why, after prison, that serene and charming man sacrificed his marriage, exploited a son's love and abused the trust of fervent supporters to wage a 42-year struggle for a vindication that could never be honestly gained." -- The New York Times Book Review

"An intriguing portrait of an enigmatic man who stood center stage during the most electrifying moments of the Cold War." -- Library Journal

"A significant contribution to a subject that continues to fascinate Americans...." -- New York Sun

Nice try, but no cigar........2005-08-09

There is a tremendous variety of titles on Russia containing much excellent writing... but after more than ten years of traveling and doing business in the CIS, I shouldn't be amazed to again find a well touted book about Russia which is just another sly rant, from just another apparently non-responsible `Journo' with an axe to grind in the guise of investigative journalism. It seems that many of the Main-Stream-Media writers obsessively demonstrate a morbid glee in mixing fact with opinion; focusing on style and challenging power with sophistry in an attempt to enroll and incite the lay reader to mis-apprehended indignation about Russia.

Inside Putin's Russia is a well thought out exercise in sophistry. The author has an excellent command of allusion, half truths and negative spin. No doubt much of the data cited is attached to partial truths, but to lump Stalin's actions of long ago; the still contested Katyn forest incidents, into the same pot with the Russian culture of today is sheer mischief.

I expected a well balanced, objective report of how Russia, as I have personally experienced, has pulled its socks up and is moving forward with hope and big hearts. But by the first few chapters, the opinions disguised as "facts" to slyly condemn Mr. Putin's integrity caused me to read the remaining chapters with a jaundiced eye. It seemed the author's knives were out for Russia in general and this precluded any further attempt to take his marvelous collection of musings over crumbling and gloomy buildings seriously.

What promised to be an exemplary evaluation of the whole of Putin's Russia, turned out to be a narrowly focused, poorly researched letter of scorn effectively damning the hopes and successes of 140 million Russian people. Notably included were negative interviews with Russian people, but the amateurish mistake the author has made is to actually *exclude* positive interviews to balance the reader's evaluations about Putin's Russia.

I am sure there are well-meaning Journalists out there who will write about Russia objectively instead of to damn it out of hand.

From Chaos to Order and Beyond.......2005-03-10

Although it was not widely recognised at the time, the choice of Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister of Russia in 1999 appears to have marked the beginning of a transition from chaos to order in the once communist nation. The question is, in moving away from chaos, might the pendulum swing once again towards the repression of the Soviet years?. But while Western political pundits and politicians talk of a return to Stalinism, the majority of Russians appear to be unconcerned; Putin and his nationalist policies enjoy high levels of support.

Despite what many commentators would have us believe, the situation in Russia is complex; fortunately, Andrew Jack's 'Inside Putin's Russia' offers help in understanding it. The book provides us with a well documented and equally well balanced account of the surprising rise of Russia's President, and of the struggle for power and control over an emerging society. Jack, a former Moscow Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, tracks the course of Putin's career, from his rather low-profile time with the KGB, to his development into a more polished and more authoritarian President whose efforts to place the country back under the control of the central government have met with mixed reviews in the West.

Personal history aside, the real value of Inside Putin's Russia is that it provides us with a richly detailed description of the political context in which to judge the man and his actions. Control of the media is one key area. The Russian President has been strongly criticised for bringing independent media under state control, but as Jack points out, the Russian media has enjoyed very few, and very short, periods of independence. At the time of Putin's first presidential victory most 'independent' sources were to a large extent under the control of commercial interests, principally those of 'Oligarchs': the men who gained ownership of much of Russian state assets in exchange for financial or media support of Boris Yeltsin's presidency.

The struggle for control of the television channel NTV, once owned by the Oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky, has been portrayed in Western media as a simple issue of freedom of the press, but as Jack's presentation makes obvious, there are other important aspects. Media independence is an important element in a pluralistic society,it is therefore a problem that much of the Russian media now functions as an organ of the state. However, it would be naïve to assume that the press is free where it is not under state control. The ground rules must be clearly set out, but the question is, by whom, the state or the super rich? In western liberal democracies the answer is also not as clear as we might wish while Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi continue to increase their influence over political processes. The Russians are not the only people with problems, and it ought to be more of a concern.

Putin's Russia has also come under attack as being 'undemocratic' but it would be wise to take into account that the country is not, and has no history of being, a liberal democracy. As Jack rightly points out, most of its citizens believe the role of the state to be fundamental, hence the approval of policies involving greater state control. Much of the criticism has its roots in American efforts to pre-empt any future Russian threat, and their need for continued access to increasingly important Russian oil. The campaign has, meanwhile, proved a useful vehicle for more personal agendas. As part of his own anti-Putin crusade, Boris Berezovsky is funding Human Rights groups, some of which paint the Oligarchs - particularly the now jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky - as 'victims' of Human Rights abuses rather than the beneficiaries of a highly unethical, although technically legal, massive transfer of public funds to private pockets.

The case for respecting Human Rights is more evident in Chechnya. Whether Putin has made a Faustian bargain with the military, allowing them free rein in order to concentrate on other areas, or whether he himself is directing operations, the results of the re-occupation of Chechnya and the 'dirty war' being waged there now the official conflict is over, are brutal. No matter that one unnamed Russian officer is quoted as claiming that the army is 'only' responsible for 50% of disappearances. It remains to be seen if the situation can be changed and the army curbed. For the military, the occupation now appears to have become, as Jack puts it, 'its own raison d'etre', while the roots of the 'Chechen Problem' itself go back beyond the first war of 1994-6, beyond even the chaos and corruption that invaded the region after the collapse of the USSR.

Inside Putin's Russia manages to find a way through the Chechen minefield without veering too much to one side or another. It is to Andrew Jack's credit that he does not lend himself to simplistic analyses and presents information on which we can form an opinion. That does not mean that the tangle of characters and vested interests is always easy to follow, but Jack can hardly be blamed for that, and he has taken the trouble to provide a helpful Dramatis Persona.

As for Putin's legacy, in many respects he deserves credit for curbing the excesses of the Yeltsin period and bringing financial resources back under state control. But the Russian President has questions to answer, in particular over Chechnya, and in his quest for order he may have, or may be tempted to go too far. Overall, Jack is probably correct when he states: "He (Putin) is unlikely to go down in history as a great transformational leader. But he may yet be viewed as playing an essential role of cohesion, stability and predictability - in domestic and even international affairs". After the roller coaster ride of the Yeltsin years, that will be no small achievement.

Gerard Coffey is European Correspondent of the South American journal, Tintaji.

Detail rich, but substance poor.......2005-02-14

Andrew Jack is Moscow bureau chief of the Financial Times, which is a pro-Big business UK paper. The paper hasn't been particularly focused or interested in Russia, except occasion critical outbursts of FT columnist Quentin Peel. The author is one of the whole crew of young Anglo-American correspondents who felt compelled to write a book after several years in Russia. The sweep of the book is broad - it is the Russia's business elite, GULAG, transitional economy, KGB, communism, city of Moscow, Russian political system, and Chechnya. It is impressive for anyone to cover all these topics in one swift stroke, but inevitably questions arise about a depth of such a book and its usefulness in predicting the Russia's future. The book didn't impress me very much on either of these counts. The author, who is essentially an investigative reporter, has undeniable strengths, which are in his knowledge of details: a date, a name, an event, some important personal detail. But a solid big picture unfortunately is not among them. The book is filled with little nuggets of information about Russia, Russian `oligarchs', and politicians, but I don't think it has a real depth, nor I am convinced that the book offers an objective portrait of `Putin's Russia'. In the book Russia is portrayed essentially as an imperfect, if not unsuccessful, disciple of laissez-faire capitalism practiced by US and UK. Also, the author does not appear to be as peeved as Marquise De Custine, but comes close sometimes.

Jack writes in crisp, short sentences. He is obviously familiar with Russian language and throws lots of names around, but his anglicizing of Russian names is annoying. For example, on page 37 he mentioned `Old' Square in Moscow. In Russian language it is `Staraya' Square. With the same success one could call the Kremlin `the Tower'.
Many pages are filled with author's personal `disappointments' in Russia from his description of unsuccessful attempts to buy fresh lattice to his accounts of agonizing encounters with Russian traffic police - the feared GAI. A lot of it appears to be a natural frustration of a foreigner, who is just trying to figure out what makes the Russians tick.

The most important weakness of this book is its failure to examine Russia on its own terms, not to try to fit it into `the bed of Procrustes' of Anglo-American model, code of behavior, and virtues of US-style market democracy. Of course, Jack is right then saying that Putin's priority is modernization of Russia, not building a `democracy that bears more than a superficial resemblance to the variance recognizable in the west.'
But the author's attitude, as shown in his choice of words, is quite wrong. Looking at the examples of countries like Japan and Singapore, how could one say that the Anglo-Saxon way of market democracy is the only way to achieve prosperity and modernization? Why, if fact, it should be desirable in Russia?

The massage of the book is pedestrian `Russia in 2008 is likely to be a country in better shape than some now fear, but not as impressive as it might have been had Putin used his potential to the full' (page 339).
The tone of patronizing superiority notwithstanding, one doesn't have to go through 350 pages to figure that out. I was impressed with his exercise in semantics when he called Russia a country, which `is shifting from anarchic liberalism towards liberal authoritarianism', but it really explains nothing. `Liberal' means different things to different people. In Russia `Young liberals' is a contemptuous name (even a swearing word) for a group of reformers who carried out `the shock therapy' of the early nineties. Incidentally, these `young liberals' have had little to do with liberalism, but were adherents of rightist Thatcherism, standing for massive privatization, withdrawal of price control, trickle-down economics, and general free-market fundamentalism.

What is particularly puzzling is Jack's failure to notice a most striking feature of Kremlin's policies. It is not Putin's connection to KGB, which makes him noteworthy, but his Russian version of Gaullism. Like De Gaulle, Putin is a nationalistic, populist leader, insistent on a strong presidency, and determent to actively encourage a `multi-polar' world, in order to check US dominance. All these have clear earmarks of French Gaullism a la Russe, and, incidentally, and not surprisingly France has been the closest Russian ally in the world. Mr. Jack who was stationed in Paris before Moscow didn't seem to bother to make a connection.

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A relief to read what 's really happening.

Putin: Russia's Choice
Richard Sakwa
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415296641

Book Description

Vladimir Putin has had a major domestic and international impact since being elected Russian President in March 2000 and yet remarkably little is known about the man in the West. This book, written by one of the UK's leading scholars of Russian politics, is the first major study of the man and his politics. Richard Sakwa's discussion provides the biographical and political context to explain Putin's astonishing rise from anonymous KGB apparatchik to leader of one of the world's most important and significant countries.

The book explains Putin's personal and intellectual development and his ability to effect social and political change. His attempts to reform the endemic corruption of the Russian state and to reshape its political system and national identity are explored alongside his economic, social, cultural, regional and foreign policies. The author also examines the close personal relationships that Putin has forged with other world leaders such as President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.

Drawing on both Russian and English-language sources, and providing comprehensive coverage of Putin's speeches, interviews and policy documents, this is the definitive study of the Russian leader.

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A relief to read what 's really happening........2005-11-11

It 's really a relief to read an objective analysis of what Mr. Putin's been up to. Thoughtful, thorough with no axe to grind, the author sheds a new and welcome light on current Russian politics. I have traveled the CIS many times and read many books about Russia's post-communist transition; usually finishing a book still a bit puzzled and remembering Churchill's remark that Russia was a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.' But no more! - Now, Mr. Sakwa has turned the lights on for anyone who cares to bypass the tabloid press to find out what the true status is of Russia and the direction the Federation is heading. What truly astounded me was how competent and multi-tasked Mr. Putin has had to be to wrestle Russia's post communist political behemoth into a new, stable beginning for true domestic and international progress. A relief to read, actually.

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Vladimir Putin (Biography)
Thomas Streissguth
Manufacturer: First Avenue Editions
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ASIN: 082259630X

Leaders of Russia and the Soviet Union: From the Romanov Dynasty to Vladimir Putin

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Leaders of Russia and the Soviet Union: From the Romanov Dynasty to Vladimir Putin
John Paxton
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1579581323

Book Description

This reference work surveys the leaders of Russia and the Soviet Union- from Michael, the first Romanov tsar in 1613, through the creation and dissolution of the Soviet Union, to the present day President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Chronologically arranged, these biographies paint a thorough yet succinct portrait of 30 leaders including discussion about the family and education of each ruler, important legislation, events, and wars under each leader's rule; and each leader's achievements and impact on Russia or the Soviet Union.

Key Features
*The first authoritative work to cover almost 400 years of leaders in Russia and the Soviet Union
*Examines the people who influenced the leaders such as regents, lovers, advisers, and military figures
*Illustrations of key leaders, genealogical tables, and chronologies
*Bibliographic references and suggestions for further reading
*Glossary of Russian terms and organizations

Putin's Progress: A Biography of Russia's Enigmatic President, Vladimir Putin

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Putin's Progress: A Biography of Russia's Enigmatic President, Vladimir Putin
Peter Truscott
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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ASIN: 0743240057

Russia President Vladimir Putin Handbook

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Russia President Vladimir Putin Handbook
USA International Business Publications
Manufacturer: International Business Publications, USA
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Vladimir Putin (Major World Leaders)
Charles J. Shields
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
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Vladimir Putin / Putin's Progress: Lider De La Nueva Rusia / Leader of the New Russia

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Vladimir Putin / Putin's Progress: Lider De La Nueva Rusia / Leader of the New Russia
Peter Truscott
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