Putin
- Author: Richard Sakwa
- ISBN Code: : 1134133456
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 400 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 871 Readers
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Books Synopsis
The new edition of this extremely well-received political biography of Vladimir Putin builds on the strengths of the first edition to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his profound influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. New to this edition: analysis of Putin's second term as President more biographical information in the light of recent research detailed discussion of changes to the policy process and the élites around Putin developments in state-society relations including the conflicts with oligarchs such as Khodorkovsky review of changes affecting the party system and electoral legislation, including the development of federalism in Russia details on economic performance under Putin, including more discussion of the energy sector and pipeline politics Russia’s relationship with NATO after the ‘big bang’ enlargement, EU-Russian relations after enlargement, and Russia’s relations with other post-Soviet states the conclusion brings us up-to-date with debates over the question of democracy in Russia today and the nature of Putin’s leadership and his place in the world. Putin is essential reading for all scholars and students of Russian politics.
Mr. Putin
- Author: Fiona Hill,Clifford G. Gaddy
- ISBN Code: : 081572618X
- Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
- Page : 533 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 356 Readers
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Books Synopsis
From the KGB to the Kremlin: a multidimensional portrait of the man at war with the West. Where do Vladimir Putin's ideas come from? How does he look at the outside world? What does he want, and how far is he willing to go? The great lesson of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was the danger of misreading the statements, actions, and intentions of the adversary. Today, Vladimir Putin has become the greatest challenge to European security and the global world order in decades. Russia's 8,000 nuclear weapons underscore the huge risks of not understanding who Putin is. Featuring five new chapters, this new edition dispels potentially dangerous misconceptions about Putin and offers a clear-eyed look at his objectives. It presents Putin as a reflection of deeply ingrained Russian ways of thinking as well as his unique personal background and experience. Praise for the first edition If you want to begin to understand Russia today, read this book. —Sir John Scarlett, former chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) For anyone wishing to understand Russia's evolution since the breakup of the Soviet Union and its trajectory since then, the book you hold in your hand is an essential guide.—John McLaughlin, former deputy director of U.S. Central Intelligence Of the many biographies of Vladimir Putin that have appeared in recent years, this one is the most useful. —Foreign Affairs This is not just another Putin biography. It is a psychological portrait. —The Financial Times Q: Do you have time to read books? If so, which ones would you recommend? "My goodness, let's see. There's Mr. Putin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Insightful." —Vice President Joseph Biden in Joe Biden: The Rolling Stone Interview.
Putin's People
- Author: Catherine Belton
- ISBN Code: : 0374712786
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Page : 405 pages
- Genre : History
- Reviews : 499 Readers
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Books Synopsis
A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller | A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Named a best book of the year by The Economist | Financial Times | New Statesman | The Telegraph "[Putin's People] will surely now become the definitive account of the rise of Putin and Putinism." —Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic "This riveting, immaculately researched book is arguably the best single volume written about Putin, the people around him and perhaps even about contemporary Russia itself in the past three decades." —Peter Frankopan, Financial Times Interference in American elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics in Europe. War in Ukraine. In recent years, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has waged a concerted campaign to expand its influence and undermine Western institutions. But how and why did all this come about, and who has orchestrated it? In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe. The result is a chilling and revelatory exposé of the KGB’s revanche—a story that begins in the murk of the Soviet collapse, when networks of operatives were able to siphon billions of dollars out of state enterprises and move their spoils into the West. Putin and his allies subsequently completed the agenda, reasserting Russian power while taking control of the economy for themselves, suppressing independent voices, and launching covert influence operations abroad. Ranging from Moscow and London to Switzerland and Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach—and assembling a colorful cast of characters to match—Putin’s People is the definitive account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.
Vladimir Putin: Life Coach
- Author: Rob Sears
- ISBN Code: : 178689470X
- Publisher : Canongate Books
- Page : 192 pages
- Genre : Humor
- Reviews : 223 Readers
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Books Synopsis
What can the rise of this century's most feared politician teach us about life, work and love? Rob Sears satirises the machinations that enabled Putin to dominate the Kremlin and undermine the United States of America as ways to help you take control of your mundane life. Would you like to ruin your enemies by sharing compromising material about that time they didn't wash their hands? Fancy hacking democracy at the parent-teacher association to ensure you're a shoo-in for social secretary? Or serving up a cold dish called revenge in a high street restaurant? Filled with stories of Putin's extraordinary and chilling actions, with mocking ideas and illustrations to help you emulate him on a small scale, Vladimir Putin: Life Coach is the ultimate parody guide to releasing the pseudo-elected, judo black belt, 5D chess-playing autocrat inside each and every one of us.
We Need to Talk About Putin
- Author: Mark Galeotti
- ISBN Code: : 1473566029
- Publisher : Random House
- Page : 160 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 907 Readers
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Books Synopsis
'Galeotti sketches a bleak, but convincing picture of the man in the Kremlin and the political system that he dominates' - The Times Meet the world's most dangerous man. Who is the real Vladimir Putin? What does he want? And what will he do next? Despite the millions of words written on Putin's Russia, the West still fails to truly understand one of the world's most powerful politicians, whose influence spans the globe and whose networks of power reach into the very heart of our daily lives. In this essential primer, Professor Mark Galeotti uncovers the man behind the myth, addressing the key misperceptions of Putin and explaining how we can decipher his motivations and next moves. From Putin's early life in the KGB and his real relationship with the USA to his vision for the future of Russia - and the world - Galeotti draws on new Russian sources and explosive unpublished accounts to give unparalleled insight into the man at the heart of global politics.
Putin's World
- Author: Angela Stent
- ISBN Code: : 1455533017
- Publisher : Twelve
- Page : 448 pages
- Genre : History
- Reviews : 412 Readers
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Books Synopsis
From renowned foreign policy expert Angela Stent comes a dissection of how Putin created a paranoid and polarized world -- and increased Russia's status on the global stage. How did Russia manage to emerge resurgent on the world stage and play a weak hand so effectively? Is it because Putin is a brilliant strategist? Or has Russia stepped into a vacuum created by the West's distraction with its own domestic problems and US ambivalence about whether it still wants to act as a superpower? Putin's World examines the country's turbulent past, how it has influenced Putin, the Russians' understanding of their position on the global stage and their future ambitions -- and their conviction that the West has tried to deny them a seat at the table of great powers since the USSR collapsed. This book looks at Russia's key relationships -- its downward spiral with the United States, Europe, and NATO; its ties to China, Japan, the Middle East; and with its neighbors, particularly the fraught relationship with Ukraine. Putin's World will help Americans understand how and why the post-Cold War era has given way to a new, more dangerous world, one in which Russia poses a challenge to the United States in every corner of the globe -- and one in which Russia has become a toxic and divisive subject in US politics.
Vladimir Putin. The Whole Story
- Author: Arvo Tuominen
- ISBN Code: : 9526960025
- Publisher : Kapaibooks
- Page : 258 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 679 Readers
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Books Synopsis
The new biography of Vladimir Putin offers an insight into current international politics through deep understanding of Russian culture and history. The reader will follow the footsteps of Putin through the history and collapse of Soviet Union to the gilded powerhouse of the Kremlin. Read how the Russian politics works and who decide on Russia's foreign policy.
Putin: His Downfall and Russia's Coming Crash
- Author: Richard Lourie
- ISBN Code: : 1250135966
- Publisher : Macmillan
- Page : 320 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 550 Readers
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Books Synopsis
An electrifying and timely book, by leading Russian expert Richard Lourie, that explores Putin's failures and whether Trump's election gives Putin extraordinarily dangerous opportunities in our mad new world. "A master chronicler of modern Russia. Drawing on his own expertise, Lourie paints a convincing portrait of a ruthless authoritarian leader headed toward failure. This book serves as an essential primer on Putin and, by extension, Russia."—Publishers Weekly For reasons that are made clear in this book, Putin’s Russia will collapse just as Imperial Russia did in 1917 and as Soviet Russia did in 1991. The only questions are when, how violently, and with how much peril for the world. The U.S. election complicates everything, including: · Putin’s next land grab · Exploitations of the Arctic · Cyber-espionage · Putin and China ...and many more crucial topics. Putin: His Downfall and Russia's Coming Crash is an essential read for everybody bewildered and dismayed by the new world order.
The Man Without a Face
- Author: Masha Gessen
- ISBN Code: : 1101560606
- Publisher : Penguin
- Page : 336 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 528 Readers
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Books Synopsis
National Book Award winner Masha Gessen's biography of a ruthless man's ascent to near-absolute power. “In a country where journalists critical of the government have a way of meeting untimely deaths, Gessen has shown remarkable courage in researching and writing this unflinching indictment of the most powerful man in Russia.” —The Wall Street Journal “Thanks to fearless reporting and acute psychological insights, Masha Gessen has done the impossible in writing a highly readable, compelling life of Russia's mysterious president-for-life.” –Tina Brown, The Daily Beast The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to his own people and to the world. Handpicked as a successor by the "family" surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had stood in the shadows, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave, and smashed the country's fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies. As a journalist living in Moscow, Masha Gessen experienced this history firsthand, and for The Man Without a Face has drawn on information and sources no other writer has tapped. This account of how a "faceless" man maneuvered his way into absolute—and absolutely corrupt—power is the definitive biography of Vladimir Putin.
First Person
- Author: Vladimir Putin,Nataliya Gevorkyan,Natalya Timakova,Andrei Kolesnikov
- ISBN Code: : 0786723270
- Publisher : PublicAffairs
- Page : 208 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 810 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Who is this Vladimir Putin? Who is this man who suddenly--overnight and without warning--was handed the reigns 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.
Putin's Playbook
- Author: Rebekah Koffler
- ISBN Code: : 1684510228
- Publisher : Simon and Schuster
- Page : 432 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 469 Readers
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Books Synopsis
"A page-turner dripping with facts and conclusions that gives us clarity few have attained; a must-read for those who want to understand [Russia and President Putin]….” —GENERAL PHIL BREEDLOVE, USAF (Ret.), seventeenth Supreme Allied Commander Europe "Putin’s Playbook will make readers see the urgency of developing a counterstrategy to the brilliance of Putin’s playbook.” —NEWT GINGRICH Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America The “Russian collusion” hoax not only poisoned American politics but also sowed confusion about the real Russian threat to the United States. President Vladimir Putin wasn’t colluding with the Trump campaign, but as a former U.S. intelligence specialist makes clear in this eye-opening book, the judo-loving ex–KGB agent most certainly has a plan to defeat the United States Born and raised in the Soviet Union, Rebekah Koffler came to America as a young woman. After 9/11, she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, devoting her career to protecting her new country. Now she reveals in chilling detail Putin’s long-range plan— his “playbook”—to weaken and subdue the United States, preparing for the war that he believes is inevitable. With the insight of a native, Koffler explains how Russians, formed by centuries of wartorn history, understand the world and their national destiny. The collapse of the Soviet empire, which Putin experienced as a vulnerable KGB agent in East Germany, was a catastrophic humiliation. Seeing himself as the modern “Czar Vladimir” of a unique Slavic nation at war with the West, he is determined to restore Russia to its place as a great power. Koffler’s analysis is enriched by her deeply personal account of her life in the Soviet Union. Devoted to her adopted homeland but concerned about the complacency of her fellow citizens, she appreciates American freedoms as only a survivor of totalitarianism can. An opportunity to view ourselves and the world through the eyes of our adversary, Putin’s Playbook is a rare and compelling testimony that we ignore at our peril.
Kremlin Rising
- Author: Peter Baker,Susan Glasser
- ISBN Code: : 0743281799
- Publisher : Simon and Schuster
- Page : 464 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 542 Readers
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Books Synopsis
In the tradition of Hedrick Smith's The Russians, Robert G. Kaiser's Russia: The People and the Power, and David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb comes an eloquent and eye-opening chronicle of Vladimir Putin's Russia, from this generation's leading Moscow correspondents. With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia launched itself on a fitful transition to Western-style democracy. But a decade later, Boris Yeltsin's handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin, a childhood hooligan turned KGB officer who rose from nowhere determined to restore the order of the Soviet past, resolved to bring an end to the revolution. Kremlin Rising goes behind the scenes of contemporary Russia to reveal the culmination of Project Putin, the secret plot to reconsolidate power in the Kremlin. During their four years as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser witnessed firsthand the methodical campaign to reverse the post-Soviet revolution and transform Russia back into an authoritarian state. Their gripping narrative moves from the unlikely rise of Putin through the key moments of his tenure that re-centralized power into his hands, from his decision to take over Russia's only independent television network to the Moscow theater siege of 2002 to the "managed democracy" elections of 2003 and 2004 to the horrific slaughter of Beslan's schoolchildren in 2004, recounting a four-year period that has changed the direction of modern Russia. But the authors also go beyond the politics to draw a moving and vivid portrait of the Russian people they encountered -- both those who have prospered and those barely surviving -- and show how the political flux has shaped individual lives. Opening a window to a country on the brink, where behind the gleaming new shopping malls all things Soviet are chic again and even high school students wonder if Lenin was right after all, Kremlin Rising features the personal stories of Russians at all levels of society, including frightened army deserters, an imprisoned oil billionaire, Chechen villagers, a trendy Moscow restaurant king, a reluctant underwear salesman, and anguished AIDS patients in Siberia. With shrewd reporting and unprecedented access to Putin's insiders, Kremlin Rising offers both unsettling new revelations about Russia's leader and a compelling inside look at life in the land that he is building. As the first major book on Russia in years, it is an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the country and promises to shape the debate about Russia, its uncertain future, and its relationship with the United States.
Inside Putin's Russia
- Author: Andrew Jack
- ISBN Code: : 9780198039600
- Publisher : Oxford University Press
- Page : 384 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 100 Readers
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Books Synopsis
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.
Putin's Gambit
- Author: Lou Dobbs,James O. Born
- ISBN Code: : 1466851406
- Publisher : Forge Books
- Page : 352 pages
- Genre : Fiction
- Reviews : 437 Readers
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Books Synopsis
From TV broadcaster Lou Dobbs and award-winning author James O. Born comes Putin's Gambit, an international financial thriller about a KGB plot to use a series of terrorist attacks as cover for a Russian military incursion into Estonia. Adjusting to civilian life has not been easy for former Marine Derek Walsh. As he navigates a brutal job on Wall Street and a challenging romance, he wonders if he could be doing more with his life. When an inexplicable $200 million dollar money transfer is made on his computer, he is thrust into the world of international terror, and the global economy is knocked off its hinges. On the other side of the Atlantic, a dangerous alliance has formed. Radical Islamists and Russian extremists have set the wheels in motion for Russia to assert its power in Europe. The US President has proven to be weak on foreign policy, the military is stretched too thin, and Vladimir Putin judges this to be the time for Russia to regain its Soviet Empire. Troops mass on the Estonian border, waiting for the order to move. The FBI believes Walsh was involved in the money transfer, and a group of Russians are intent on killing him. As New Yorkers are outraged upon learning of the illegal money transfer, and the world economy crashes after a series of terrorist attacks, Walsh and his Marine buddies are the only ones that can keep the world from spinning off its axis. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
All the Kremlin's Men
- Author: Mikhail Zygar
- ISBN Code: : 1610397401
- Publisher : PublicAffairs
- Page : 400 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 794 Readers
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Books Synopsis
An extraordinary behind-the-scenes portrait of the court of Vladimir Putin, the oligarchs that surround it, and the many moods of modern Russia that reads like a "real House of Cards"(Lev Lurie). All the Kremlin's Men is a gripping narrative of an accidental king and a court out of control. Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putin's inner circle, this book presents a radically different view of power and politics in Russia. The image of Putin as a strongman is dissolved. In its place is a weary figurehead buffeted--if not controlled--by the men who at once advise and deceive him. The regional governors and bureaucratic leaders are immovable objects, far more powerful in their fiefdoms than the president himself. So are the gatekeepers-those officials who guard the pathways to power-on whom Putin depends as much as they rely on him. The tenuous edifice is filled with all of the intrigue and plotting of a Medici court, as enemies of the state are invented and wars begun to justify personal gains, internal rivalries, or one faction's biased advantage. A bestseller in Russia, All the Kremlin's Men is a shocking revisionist portrait of the Putin era and a dazzling reconstruction of the machinations of courtiers running riot.
Putin's Russia
- Author: Anna Politkovskaya
- ISBN Code: : 1446448371
- Publisher : Random House
- Page : 320 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 685 Readers
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Books Synopsis
A former KGB spy, Vladimir Putin is one of the world’s most enigmatic figures. This is his Russia. Internationally admired for her fearless reporting, award-winning journalist Anna Politkovskaya turns her steely gaze on President Putin and his early regime in this explosive book. From Putin’s tyrannical grip on ordinary citizens to rampant corruption in highest ranks of the government, as well as Mafia dealings, scandals in the provinces and the decline of the intelligentsia, Politkovskaya offers a scathing condemnation of the President and his rule, revealing a shocking state of affairs: soldiers dying from malnutrition, parents requiring to bribes to recover their dead sons' bodies and conscripts are being hired out as slaves. More relevant and important than ever in today’s political landscape, Putin's Russia is both a gripping portrayal of a country in crisis and the testament of an extraordinary reporter. ‘A searing portrait of a country in disarray and of the man at its helm, from the bravest of journalists’ New York Times ‘Anna Politkovskaya is a heroic journalist’ Guardian ‘We will continue to learn from her for years’ Salman Rushdie
Putin's Counterrevolution
- Author: Sergey Aleksashenko
- ISBN Code: : 0815732775
- Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
- Page : 347 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 587 Readers
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Books Synopsis
How Putin's autocracy undercut Russia's economy and chances for democracy During his nearly twenty years at the center of Russian political power, Vladimir Putin has transformed the vast country in many ways, not all of them for the better. The near-chaos of the early post-Soviet years has been replaced by an increasingly rigid authoritarianism, resembling a hard-fisted monarchy more than the previous communist dictatorship. Putin's early years in power saw rapid economic growth, averaging nearly 7 percent annually, and the rise of Moscow as a vibrant European-style city. But a slowdown during the second half of Putin's administration, since 2009, has resulted in the stagnation of the economy, especially in the hinterlands, with few signs of a possible turnaround. What accounted for these changes in Russia? Sergey Aleksashenko, a former top Russian finance official and then private businessman, lays the blame squarely on Putin himself, even more than external factors such as the sharp fall in oil prices or Western sanctions after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. In his relentless drive to consolidate power in his own hands, Aleksashenko writes, Putin has destroyed the very idea of competition for political power. He has done so by systematically undercutting basic political institutions of the post-Soviet Russian state, including independent power centers such as the parliament, the judiciary, and a free media. In the economic realm, Putin effectively undermined Russia's still-emerging and very fragile system for protecting property rights—the basis of all economic activity. This in turn caused a sharp decline in private investment and thus contributed to the long-term economic slowdown. One result of Putin's rule was the destruction of the emerging checks and balances system in Russia, and that would be a major problem for Russia if and when it decides to become a "normal" democratic country based on Western values. In describing how all this happened, Aleksashenko's book offers universal lessons in the necessity of checks and balances in any political system—as well as in the importance of vibrant political institutions for economic growth.
Petrostate
- Author: Marshall I. Goldman
- ISBN Code: : 9780199712571
- Publisher : Oxford University Press
- Page : 264 pages
- Genre : Business & Economics
- Reviews : 172 Readers
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Books Synopsis
In the aftermath of the financial collapse of August 1998, it looked as if Russia's day as a superpower had come and gone. That it should recover and reassert itself after less than a decade is nothing short of an economic and political miracle. Based on extensive research, including several interviews with Vladimir Putin, this revealing book chronicles Russia's dramatic reemergence on the world stage, illuminating the key reason for its rebirth: the use of its ever-expanding energy wealth to reassert its traditional great power ambitions. In his deft, informative narrative, Marshall Goldman traces how this has come to be, and how Russia is using its oil-based power as a lever in world politics. The book provides an informative overview of oil in Russia, traces Vladimir Putin's determined effort to reign in the upstart oil oligarchs who had risen to power in the post-Soviet era, and describes Putin's efforts to renationalize and refashion Russia's industries into state companies and his vaunted "national champions" corporations like Gazprom, largely owned by the state, who do the bidding of the state. Goldman shows how Russia paid off its international debt and has gone on to accumulate the world's third largest holdings of foreign currency reserves--all by becoming the world's largest producer of petroleum and the world's second largest exporter. Today, Vladimir Putin and his cohort have stabilized the Russian economy and recentralized power in Moscow, and fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) have made it all possible. The story of oil and gas in Russia is a tale of discovery, intrigue, corruption, wealth, misguidance, greed, patronage, nepotism, and power. Marshall Goldman tells this story with panache, as only one of the world's leading authorities on Russia could.
House of Trump, House of Putin
- Author: Craig Unger
- ISBN Code: : 1524743526
- Publisher : Penguin
- Page : 368 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 882 Readers
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Books Synopsis
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The story Unger weaves with those earlier accounts and his original reporting is fresh, illuminating and more alarming than the intelligence channel described in the Steele dossier.”—The Washington Post House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin’s long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence. To most, it will be a hair-raising revelation that the Cold War did not end in 1991—that it merely evolved, with Trump’s apartments offering the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. In House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump’s sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia’s phoenix like rise from the ashes of the post–Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president. This essential book is crucial to understanding the real powers at play in the shadows of today’s world. The appearance of key figures in this book—Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Felix Sater to name a few—ring with haunting significance in the wake of Robert Mueller’s report and as others continue to close in on the truth.
Putin Country
- Author: Anne Garrels
- ISBN Code: : 0374710430
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Page : 288 pages
- Genre : History
- Reviews : 177 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Short-listed for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize More than twenty years ago, the NPR correspondent Anne Garrels first visited Chelyabinsk, a gritty military-industrial center a thousand miles east of Moscow. The longtime home of the Soviet nuclear program, the Chelyabinsk region contained beautiful lakes, shuttered factories, mysterious closed cities, and some of the most polluted places on earth. Garrels’s goal was to chart the aftershocks of the U.S.S.R.’s collapse by traveling to Russia’s heartland. Returning again and again, Garrels found that the area’s new freedoms and opportunities were exciting but also traumatic. As the economic collapse of the early 1990s abated, the city of Chelyabinsk became richer and more cosmopolitan, even as official corruption and intolerance for minorities grew more entrenched. Sushi restaurants proliferated; so did shakedowns. In the neighboring countryside, villages crumbled into the ground. Far from the glitz of Moscow, the people of Chelyabinsk were working out their country’s destiny, person by person. In Putin Country, Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of Middle Russia. We meet upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists who champion the rights of orphans and disabled children, and ostentatious mafiosi. We discover surprising subcultures, such as a vibrant underground gay community and a circle of determined Protestant evangelicals. And we watch doctors and teachers trying to cope with inescapable payoffs and institutionalized negligence. As Vladimir Putin tightens his grip on power and war in Ukraine leads to Western sanctions and a lower standard of living, the local population mingles belligerent nationalism with a deep ambivalence about their country’s direction. Through it all, Garrels sympathetically charts an ongoing identity crisis. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union, what is Russia? What kind of pride and cohesion can it offer? Drawing on close friendships sustained over many years, Garrels explains why Putin commands the loyalty of so many Russians, even those who decry the abuses of power they regularly encounter. Correcting the misconceptions of Putin’s supporters and critics alike, Garrels’s portrait of Russia’s silent majority is both essential and engaging reading at a time when cold war tensions are resurgent.
Putin And The Rise Of Russia
- Author: Michael Stuermer
- ISBN Code: : 0297856839
- Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Page : 272 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 859 Readers
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Books Synopsis
A brilliant analysis of Putin and the key role a resurgent Russia has to play in world affairs. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the world was left wondering about its destiny. Russia is still an enormous power with a population exceeding 140 million, immense military resources and giant energy reserves - in short, a vast land full of promise and opportunity. Russia has the potential to be a force of stability or a force of turmoil, but when it comes to global affairs, can she be persuaded to join the world order? Will yesterday's revolutionary power become tomorrow's stabilizer? Professor Stuermer's authoritative and timely account considers a Russia going through a defining phase after the departure of Vladimir Putin. History is on the move: we face an open and challenging future in which Russia, for better or for worse, will play a key role.
Power and Policy in Putin’s Russia
- Author: Richard Sakwa
- ISBN Code: : 1317989945
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 262 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 459 Readers
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Books Synopsis
The volume provides a retrospective analysis of Putin’s eight years as president between 2000 and 2008. An international group of leading specialists examine Putin’s leadership in an informed and balanced manner. The authors are drawn from Russia itself, as well as from Europe, America and Australasia. Coverage includes general analysis of the Putin presidency, the ideology underlying the thinking of the regime, issues of institutional development including coverage of parties, parliament and elections, developments in the federal system, corruption and changes in the configuration of the elite. The impact of energy on changes in political economy provides the background to an assessment of Russia’s re-emergence as a great power in international affairs, accompanied by analysis of the difficulties in Russia’s relations with its former Soviet neighbours and the European Union. The authors examine the interaction between power and policy, and draw some conclusions about the dynamics of Putin’s system of government and thus of the fate of Russia. This book was published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.
Power and Policy in Putin’s Russia
- Author: Richard Sakwa
- ISBN Code: : 1317989937
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 272 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 942 Readers
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Books Synopsis
The volume provides a retrospective analysis of Putin’s eight years as president between 2000 and 2008. An international group of leading specialists examine Putin’s leadership in an informed and balanced manner. The authors are drawn from Russia itself, as well as from Europe, America and Australasia. Coverage includes general analysis of the Putin presidency, the ideology underlying the thinking of the regime, issues of institutional development including coverage of parties, parliament and elections, developments in the federal system, corruption and changes in the configuration of the elite. The impact of energy on changes in political economy provides the background to an assessment of Russia’s re-emergence as a great power in international affairs, accompanied by analysis of the difficulties in Russia’s relations with its former Soviet neighbours and the European Union. The authors examine the interaction between power and policy, and draw some conclusions about the dynamics of Putin’s system of government and thus of the fate of Russia. This book was published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.
Putin Redux
- Author: Richard Sakwa
- ISBN Code: : 1317704290
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 262 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 879 Readers
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Books Synopsis
This book builds on the strengths of the previous volumes by the same author to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his profound influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. However, this is not a new edition of the earlier books but is an entirely new work. The focus now is on the dilemmas of power since 2008. There is a brief biographical sketch of Vladimir Putin and much analysis of his ideas and policies, but the book now focuses on the systemic contradictions that have created a blockage on modernisation and a stalemate in politics, Putin's role as Prime Minister since 2008 and his political successes and failures, analysis of the implications of Putin's third term as President and the 2011-12 electoral cycle and the ensuing crisis which led to thousands protesting on the streets This work assesses the achievements and failing of Putin’s rule, but above all tries to make sense of contemporary developments. This is the definitive account of Putin and is essential reading for all scholars and students of Russian politics.
Putin Redux
- Author: Richard Sakwa
- ISBN Code: : 1317704282
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 262 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 910 Readers
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Books Synopsis
This book builds on the strengths of the previous volumes by the same author to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his profound influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. However, this is not a new edition of the earlier books but is an entirely new work. The focus now is on the dilemmas of power since 2008. There is a brief biographical sketch of Vladimir Putin and much analysis of his ideas and policies, but the book now focuses on the systemic contradictions that have created a blockage on modernisation and a stalemate in politics, Putin's role as Prime Minister since 2008 and his political successes and failures, analysis of the implications of Putin's third term as President and the 2011-12 electoral cycle and the ensuing crisis which led to thousands protesting on the streets This work assesses the achievements and failing of Putin’s rule, but above all tries to make sense of contemporary developments. This is the definitive account of Putin and is essential reading for all scholars and students of Russian politics.
Putin's Russia
- Author: Stephen K. Wegren
- ISBN Code: : 1538114275
- Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
- Page : 360 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 732 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Now in a thoroughly revised, expanded, and updated edition, this classic text provides an authoritative and current analysis of contemporary Russia. Leading scholars explore the daunting domestic and international problems Russia confronts, considering a comprehensive array of economic, political, foreign policy, and social issues.
Putin and Putinism
- Author: Ronald J. Hill,Ottorino Cappelli
- ISBN Code: : 1317967453
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 216 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 358 Readers
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Books Synopsis
After two terms as president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin handed over to his hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev on 7 May 2008, and became prime minister. As president, Putin moved swiftly and effectively to overcome the chaotic legacy of his predecessor, post-Soviet Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. Focusing on rebuilding the authority of the Russian state, and taking advantage of the rise in world prices of the country’s main asset – oil and natural gas – Putin won unassailable popularity at home and caused apprehension around the world, particularly in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood. His methods of rule caused anxiety among liberals and democrats inside Russia and abroad. The legacy of Putin’s presidency poses challenges that demand interpretation. He has not departed from the Russian or the world political scene, and the need to understand and come to terms with Putin’s Russia has not diminished. These essays by an international team of authors are based on presentations to a working conference held in Naples, Italy, in May 2008, supplemented by contributions from authors who were not present at the conference, in order to present a wider selection of views and interpretations of the Putin phenomenon. This book was published as a special issue of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.
Putin and Putinism
- Author: Ronald J. Hill,Ottorino Cappelli
- ISBN Code: : 1317967461
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 216 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 165 Readers
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Books Synopsis
After two terms as president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin handed over to his hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev on 7 May 2008, and became prime minister. As president, Putin moved swiftly and effectively to overcome the chaotic legacy of his predecessor, post-Soviet Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. Focusing on rebuilding the authority of the Russian state, and taking advantage of the rise in world prices of the country’s main asset – oil and natural gas – Putin won unassailable popularity at home and caused apprehension around the world, particularly in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood. His methods of rule caused anxiety among liberals and democrats inside Russia and abroad. The legacy of Putin’s presidency poses challenges that demand interpretation. He has not departed from the Russian or the world political scene, and the need to understand and come to terms with Putin’s Russia has not diminished. These essays by an international team of authors are based on presentations to a working conference held in Naples, Italy, in May 2008, supplemented by contributions from authors who were not present at the conference, in order to present a wider selection of views and interpretations of the Putin phenomenon. This book was published as a special issue of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.
War with Russia?
- Author: Stephen F. Cohen
- ISBN Code: : 1510745823
- Publisher : Simon and Schuster
- Page : 240 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 508 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Is America in a new Cold War with Russia? How does a new Cold War affect the safety and security of the United States? Does Vladimir Putin really want to destabilize the West? What should Donald Trump and America’s allies do? America is in a new Cold War with Russia even more dangerous than the one the world barely survived in the twentieth century. The Soviet Union is gone, but the two nuclear superpowers are again locked in political and military confrontations, now from Ukraine to Syria. All of this is exacerbated by Washington’s war-like demonizing of the Kremlin leadership and by Russiagate’s unprecedented allegations. US mainstream media accounts are highly selective and seriously misleading. American “disinformation,” not only Russian, is a growing peril. In War With Russia?, Stephen F. Cohen—the widely acclaimed historian of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia—gives readers a very different, dissenting narrative of this more dangerous new Cold War from its origins in the 1990s, the actual role of Vladimir Putin, and the 2014 Ukrainian crisis to Donald Trump’s election and today’s unprecedented Russiagate allegations. Topics include: Distorting Russia US Follies and Media Malpractices 2016 The Obama Administration Escalates Military Confrontation With Russia Was Putin’s Syria Withdrawal Really A “Surprise”? Trump vs. Triumphalism Has Washington Gone Rogue? Blaming Brexit on Putin and Voters Washington Warmongers, Moscow Prepares Trump Could End the New Cold War The Real Enemies of US Security Kremlin-Baiting President Trump Neo-McCarthyism Is Now Politically Correct Terrorism and Russiagate Cold-War News Not “Fit to Print” Has NATO Expansion Made Anyone Safer? Why Russians Think America Is Attacking Them How Washington Provoked—and Perhaps Lost—a New Nuclear-Arms Race Russia Endorses Putin, The US and UK Condemn Him (Again) Russophobia Sanction Mania Cohen’s views have made him, it is said, “America’s most controversial Russia expert.” Some say this to denounce him, others to laud him as a bold, highly informed critic of US policies and the dangers they have helped to create. War With Russia? gives readers a chance to decide for themselves who is right: are we living, as Cohen argues, in a time of unprecedented perils at home and abroad?
Russian Roulette
- Author: Michael Isikoff,David Corn
- ISBN Code: : 1538728745
- Publisher : Twelve
- Page : 352 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 551 Readers
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Books Synopsis
The incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the U.S. election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency. "Russian Roulette is...the most thorough and riveting account." -- The New York Times Russian Roulette is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election. The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no "third-rate burglary." It was far more sophisticated and sinister -- a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle -- including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- and Russia. Russian Roulette chronicles and explores this bizarre scandal, explains the stakes, and answers one of the biggest questions in American politics: How and why did a foreign government infiltrate the country's political process and gain influence in Washington?
The Putin Mystique
- Author: Anna Arutunyan
- ISBN Code: : 1623710669
- Publisher : Interlink Publishing
- Page : 308 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 304 Readers
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Books Synopsis
GETTING TO GRIPS WITH RUSSIA’S 21ST CENTURY TSAR Vladimir V. Putin has confounded world leaders and defied their assumptions as they tried to figure him out, only to misjudge him time and again. The Putin Mystique takes the reader on a journey through the Russia of Vladimir Putin, named by Forbes magazine in 2013 as the most powerful man in the world. It is a neo-feudal world where iPads, WTO membership, and Brioni business suits conceal a power structure straight out of the Middle Ages, where the Sovereign is perceived as both divine and demonic, where a man’s riches are determined by his proximity to the Kremlin, and where large swathes of the populace live in precarious complacency interrupted by bouts of revolt. Where does that kind of power come from? The answer lies not in the leader, but in the people: from the impoverished worker who appeals directly to Putin for aid, to the businessmen, security officers and officials in Putin’s often dysfunctional government who look to their leader for instruction and protection. In her writing career, Anna Arutunyan has traveled throughout Russia to report on modern Russian politics. She has interviewed oligarchs and policemen, bishops and politicians, and many ordinary Russians. Her book is a vivid and revealing exploration of the way in which myth, power, and even religion interact to produce the love-hate relationship between the Russian people and Vladimir Putin.
Television and Presidential Power in Putin's Russia
- Author: Tina Burrett
- ISBN Code: : 1136857559
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 300 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 391 Readers
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Books Synopsis
As a new president takes power in Russia, this book provides an analysis of the changing relationship between control of Russian television media and presidential power during the tenure of President Vladimir Putin. It argues that the conflicts within Russia’s political and economic elites, and President Putin’s attempts to rebuild the Russian state after its fragmentation during the Yeltsin administration, are the most significant causes of changes in Russian media. Tina Burrett demonstrates that President Putin sought to increase state control over television as part of a larger programme aimed at strengthening the power of the state and the position of the presidency at its apex, and that such control over the media was instrumental to the success of the president’s wider systemic changes that have redefined the Russian polity. The book also highlights the ways in which oligarchic media owners in Russia used television for their own political purposes, and that media manipulation was not the exclusive preserve of the Kremlin, but a common pattern of behaviour in elite struggles in the post-Soviet era. Basing its analysis predominately on interviews with key players in the Moscow media and political elites, and on secondary sources drawn from the Russian and Western media, the book examines broad themes that have been the subject of constant media interest, and have relevance beyond the confines of Russian politics.
In Putin's Footsteps
- Author: Nina Khrushcheva,Jeffrey Tayler
- ISBN Code: : 1250163242
- Publisher : St. Martin's Press
- Page : 320 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 295 Readers
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Books Synopsis
In Putin’s Footsteps is Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler’s unique combination of travelogue, current affairs, and history, showing how Russia’s dimensions have shaped its identity and culture through the decades. With exclusive insider status as Nikita Khrushchev’s great grand-daughter, and an ex-pat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1993, Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on earth through their recreation of Vladimir Putin’s fabled New Year’s Eve speech planned across all eleven time zones. After taking over from Yeltsin in 1999, and then being elected president in a landslide, Putin traveled to almost two dozen countries and a quarter of Russia’s eighty-nine regions to connect with ordinary Russians. His travels inspired the idea of a rousing New Year’s Eve address delivered every hour at midnight throughout Russia’s eleven time zones. The idea was beautiful, but quickly abandoned as an impossible feat. He correctly intuited, however, that the success of his presidency would rest on how the country’s outback citizens viewed their place on the world stage. Today more than ever, Putin is even more determined to present Russia as a formidable nation. We need to understand why Russia has for centuries been an adversary of the West. Its size, nuclear arsenal, arms industry, and scientific community (including cyber-experts), guarantees its influence.
Not by Bread Alone
- Author: Robert Nalbandov
- ISBN Code: : 1612347983
- Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
- Page : 648 pages
- Genre : Biography & Autobiography
- Reviews : 489 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Since its independence in 1991, Russia has struggled with the growing pains of defining its role in international politics. After Vladimir Putin ascended to power in 2000, the country undertook grandiose foreign policy projects in an attempt to delineate its place among the world's superpowers. With this in mind, Robert Nalbandov examines the milestones of Russia's international relations since the turn of the twenty-first century. He focuses on the specific goals, engagement practices, and tools used by Putin's administration to promote Russia's vital national and strategic interests in specific geographic locations. His findings illuminate Putin's foreign policy objective of reinstituting Russian global strategic dominance. Nalbandov argues that identity-based politics have dominated Putin's tenure and that Russia's east/west split is reflected in Asian-European politics. Nalbandov's analysis shows that unchecked domestic power, an almost exclusive application of hard power, and determined ambition for unabridged global influence and a defined place as a world superpower are the keys to Putin's Russia.
Putin's United Russia Party
- Author: S. P. Roberts
- ISBN Code: : 1136588337
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 226 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 216 Readers
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Books Synopsis
From its inception in 2001, the United Russia Party has rapidly developed into a hugely successful, organisationally-complex political party and key component of power. This book provides a much needed analysis on United Russia by exploring the role of the party in the Russian political system, from 2000 to 2010. It explores the party empirically, as an impressive organisation in its own right, but also theoretically, as an independent or explanatory variable able to illumine the larger development of dominant-power politics in Russia in the same period. The book creates a model to understand the role of political parties in electorally-based political systems and shows how United Russia conforms to this model, and importantly, how the party also has unique features that affect its place in the political system. The book goes on to argue that United Russia represents a ‘virtual’ party hegemony, an outcome of political changes occurring elsewhere, and so a reversal of the typical relationship between parties and power found in comparative literature. This has potentially far reaching implications for our understanding of party dominance in the twenty-first century and also the sources of regime stability and instability.
Sex, Politics, and Putin
- Author: Valerie Sperling
- ISBN Code: : 0199324379
- Publisher : Oxford University Press
- Page : 288 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 391 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Is Vladimir Putin macho, or is he a "fag"? Sex, Politics, and Putin investigates how gender stereotypes and sexualization have been used as tools of political legitimation in contemporary Russia. Despite their enmity, regime allies and detractors alike have wielded traditional concepts of masculinity, femininity, and homophobia as a means of symbolic endorsement or disparagement of political leaders and policies. By repeatedly using machismo as a means of legitimation, Putin's regime (unlike that of Gorbachev or Yeltsin) opened the door to the concerted use of gendered rhetoric and imagery as a means to challenge regime authority. Sex, Politics, and Putin analyzes the political uses of gender norms and sexualization in Russia through three case studies: pro- and anti-regime groups' activism aimed at supporting or undermining the political leaders on their respective sides; activism regarding military conscription and patriotism; and feminist activism. Arguing that gender norms are most easily invoked as tools of authority-building when there exists widespread popular acceptance of misogyny and homophobia, Sperling also examines the ways in which sexism and homophobia are reflected in Russia's public sphere.
Sex, Politics, and Putin
- Author: Valerie Sperling
- ISBN Code: : 0199324360
- Publisher : Oxford University Press
- Page : 288 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 874 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Is Vladimir Putin macho, or is he a "fag"? Sex, Politics, and Putin investigates how gender stereotypes and sexualization have been used as tools of political legitimation in contemporary Russia. Despite their enmity, regime allies and detractors alike have wielded traditional concepts of masculinity, femininity, and homophobia as a means of symbolic endorsement or disparagement of political leaders and policies. By repeatedly using machismo as a means of legitimation, Putin's regime (unlike that of Gorbachev or Yeltsin) opened the door to the concerted use of gendered rhetoric and imagery as a means to challenge regime authority. Sex, Politics, and Putin analyzes the political uses of gender norms and sexualization in Russia through three case studies: pro- and anti-regime groups' activism aimed at supporting or undermining the political leaders on their respective sides; activism regarding military conscription and patriotism; and feminist activism. Arguing that gender norms are most easily invoked as tools of authority-building when there exists widespread popular acceptance of misogyny and homophobia, Sperling also examines the ways in which sexism and homophobia are reflected in Russia's public sphere.
Putin Kitsch in America
- Author: Alison Rowley
- ISBN Code: : 0228000394
- Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
- Page : pages
- Genre : Social Science
- Reviews : 319 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Vladimir Putin's image functions as a political talisman far outside of the borders of his own country. Studying material objects, fan fiction, and digital media, Putin Kitsch in America traces the satirical uses of Putin's public persona and how he stands as a foil for other world leaders. Uncovering a wide variety of material culture - satirical, scatological, even risqué - made possible by new print-on-demand technologies, Alison Rowley argues that the internet is crucial to the creation of contemporary Putin memorabilia. She explains that these items are evidence of young people's continued interest and participation in politics, even as some experts decry what they see as the opposite. The book addresses the ways in which explicit sexual references about government officials are used as everyday political commentary in the United States. The number of such references skyrocketed during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, and turning a critical eye to Putin kitsch suggests that the phenomenon will continue when Americans next return to the polls. An examination of how the Russian president's image circulates via memes, parodies, apps, and games, Putin Kitsch in America illustrates how technological change has shaped both the kinds of kitsch being produced and the nature of political engagement today.
Putin Country
- Author: Instaread
- ISBN Code: : 1683780779
- Publisher : Instaread Summaries
- Page : 30 pages
- Genre : Business & Economics
- Reviews : 207 Readers
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Books Synopsis
Putin Country by Anne Garrels | Summary & Analysis Preview: Putin Country is an account of foreign correspondent Anne Garrels’s travels in, and study of, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Chelyabinsk is a region of south central Russia located at the southern end of the Ural mountain chain, on the border of Europe and Asia. Although cosmopolitan Moscow is familiar to European and Western observers, Chelyabinsk is more typical of Russia as a whole, not least in its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 after decades of Communist rule. People in Russia were at first hopeful that the country would experience a new era of openness and prosperity. Instead, President Boris Yeltsin’s regime was notoriously corrupt. The rapid transition away from government economic control led to chaos and economic hardship. The chaos of the 1990s made people in Chelyabinsk welcome the rise of Putin in 2000. Many Russians view Putin as a strong leader working to restore… PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Putin Country · Overview of the book · Important People · Key Takeaways · Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.
Television and Culture in Putin's Russia
- Author: Stephen Hutchings,Natalia Rulyova
- ISBN Code: : 1135277923
- Publisher : Routledge
- Page : 258 pages
- Genre : Political Science
- Reviews : 489 Readers
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Books Synopsis
This book examines television culture in Russia under the government of Vladimir Putin. In recent years, the growing influx into Russian television of globally mediated genres and formats has coincided with a decline in media freedom and a ratcheting up of government control over the content style of television programmes. All three national channels (First, Russia, NTV) have fallen victim to Putin’s power-obsessed regime. Journalists critical of his Chechnya policy have been subject to harassment and arrest; programmes courting political controversy, such as Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech (Svoboda slova) have been taken off the air; coverage of national holidays like Victory Day has witnessed a return of Soviet-style bombast; and reporting on crises, such as the Beslan tragedy, is severely curtailed. The book demonstrates how broadcasters have been enlisted in support of a transparent effort to install a latter-day version of imperial pride in Russian military achievements at the centre of a national identity project over which, from the depths of the Kremlin, Putin’s government exerts a form of remote control. However, central to the book's argument is the notion that because of the changes wrought upon Russian society after 1985, a blanket return to the totalitarianism of the Soviet media has, notwithstanding the tenor of much western reporting on the issue, not occurred. Despite the fact that television is nominally under state control, that control remains remote and less than wholly effective, as amply demonstrated in the audience research conducted for the book, and in analysis of contradictions at the textual level. Overall, this book provides a fascinating account of the role of television under President Putin, and will be of interest to all those wishing to understand contemporary Russian society.