Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution

I can still remember the heady days of 1989 that marked the end of the Cold War. Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The conventional wisdom back then was that Russia would evolve into a Western-style democracy. (The Communism gig had clearly run its course, after all.) Everyone was giddy about Russia. Great, we all thought. The Ruskies don't want to bomb us anymore. And they've given up on the idea of turning Western Europe into a sausage and boiled bean-eating worker's paradise. The German heavy metal band Scorpions even waxed poetic on the changes with a song, "Winds of Change", in 1991. That song got a lot of airplay. We didn't consider that there was a third alternative: a Russia which is neither democratic nor Communist. This is the nation described in "Kremlin Rising". Baker and Glasser describe a Russian economy that is recovering from ten years of mismanagement under Boris Yeltsin. Vladamir Putin's Russia is regaining its place in the world---but not necessarily as the liberal democratic partner of our post-Glasnost visions. Putin has firmly reestablished a system of one-party rule within Russia; now the one party is his own United Russia party instead of the Communists. This is a book about geopolitics and power struggles in high places. But it is also a book that explores the new Russia on the ground, at an intensely personal level. There are many individual stories in Kremlin Rising. As the authors describe, some Russians are successfully becoming nouveau riche capitalists. (Moscow reportedly boasts more billionaires than any other city in the world.) Others are flailing about without direction or a social safety net, unable to cope with the Russian version of capitalism. This is a book that no one would have predicted in 1991. It is a must-read for those of you have been watching Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

This is a 400 page book plus notes that describes the economic, legal, and political realities of modern Russia under the leadership of Putin. This is a well written book that most will find to be both entertaining and well written. For most it will be an eye opener into the realities of the country. If you already has some ideas about Putin and Russia, this book confirms your worst fears. The two authors have chosen a style that tells two or three stories in parallel, i.e.: they present the stories of ordinary citizens, along side the stories of soldiers and the new business elites - the oligarchs, and the to that they add a fairly detailed story of Putin's rise to power, his associates from the old KGB, etc. The book contains about 400 pages of text and photographs along with many notes. It is well written and what one would classify as a light read that one can breeze through in a couple of days. It is not small font but average sized print. The authors try to present a number of points to give a picture of Russia after the fall of communism. Overall what we learn is that it is fairly bleak and chaotic situation, and far from what one would call a democracy. Many of the social benefits have been stripped away. The supply of gas and electricty is a hot bed of corruption, and the medical system has all but failed. It seems that the average citizen has given up on the democratic reforms and at the present time will just settle for some degree of tranquility and stability in their day to day lives. Right near the beginning we read a fairly disturbing chapter in which the reader follows a platoon of Russian soldiers conducting a raid on a village in Chechnya, and we learn how a pretty 18 year old girl is abducted and eventually killed by the commender. Later we read how the transformation to free enterprise has resulted in 33 billionaires living in Moscow. This is an unusual number by any standard, and the city was in a quasi boom town mode, driven by the new wealth including oil. Some prosper while others attempt to get by without the basics of life; it is a contrast between the 25 cent subway rides, and the new wealth and opulence, with a strong does of organized crime and government corruption. The authors attempt to tell two stories simultaneously, the average citizen versus the rich and powerful, and they have an excellent but short chapter that uses this technique. They describe the charges against and the trial of Mikhael Khodorkovsky while they simultaneously tell the story of a former scientists turned business man who has attempted to run an underware business selling Polish and Turkish garments in a small 6 store chain. In this way they can tell the story of how Khodorkovsky was singled out by Putin - while the lower level business people are brought down by organized crime and the manipulation of the banking system. From the book, it is clear that Khodorkovsky broke the law, and obtained a huge oil company for just $225,000., but h

Before I read this book, I used to think, "Putin is no democrat, but at least, unlike Yeltsin, he's not a drunk given to irrational outbursts. Anything is better than that." I don't feel that way after reading "Kremlin Rising." Putin has brought a certain degree of order and stability to Russia after the storm-tossed 1990s. But it is stability purchased at a very high price. As the author documents, Putin has deftly extinguished much of the trappings of democracy like an independent and aggressive media and strong regional governments. "Kremlin Rising" shows that Putin's Russia is essentially an authoritarian state disguised by a thin veneer of constitutional formalities. Another price of Putin's Russia is the terrible second war in Chechnya. Russia has done horrible things there and has paid a ghastly price for doing so. The butcher's bill of slaughtered school children at Beslan is proof enough of that. And there's another troubling thing about Putin's War. That is the possibility that the casus belli, the brutal and random apartment bombings in late 1999 supposedly by the Chechens, may have at least in part been done by Putin's minions. Now that is disturbing, and I find it even more so given the failure of the international media to press the man who George W. Bush --in an obvious gush of sentimentality brought on by 9/11-- calls "Pooty-poot" about this very important question. This being said, "Kremlin Rising" is not perfect. I think that given the fact that the book is a ringing indictment of Putin, it would have been appropriate to have a chapter of the good things that Putin has done for Russia. Putin is a bad actor, but he's no Stalin, and it would have been good to have that shown more clearly. I also don't think the author was fair to Putin on his handling of the theater siege, the one that ended with the Russians pumping knock-out gas that led to many of the rescued hostages dying needlessly. Sure that took the bloom off the triumph for Putin, but the author doesn't seem to realize that even with this collateral damage, it was a far better outcome than Beslan. But those are minor quibbles. Read the book and learn --and feel sorry for Russia.

This is the definitive book on the rise of Vladimir Putin, and the rise of a new, non-ideological authoritarianism that has effectively extinguished the glimmers of democratization that sparkled after the demise of the Soviet Union. In a procession of clearly and powerfully drawn reportages, Glasser and Baker have pealed away the ribbons of bonhomie about Russia that are so gaily tied by Schroede, Chirac and Bush. More important, they have presented us with the first truly penetrating examination of the lives of ordinary Russians in a country they are losing, from the suppression of the media, to the very extermination of the truth, whether in the case of the Beslan school massacre or the sinking of the Kursk. What the authors have done is mercilessly plot the rise of a third-rate KGB hack to the leadership of a country with as many nuclear missiles as the United States, a man who sees glory in the Soviet past, not in any difficult democratic future. Everyone should read this book; it is a pity that no one in the State Department or the White House, including such purported Russian specialists as the current secretary of state, know just a fraction of what this book offers us.

One of the best books I have read on the New Russia--which, after reading the book, you see may not be so "new" after all. This excellent study of present-day Russia and its leader is concise, interesting, well-written, informative, and not just a little bit scary. After the Wild Wild West-ness of the Yeltsin years it was inevitable that a Sheriff would ride into Moscow and reign in the party. Vladimir Putin is that Sheriff, a man of (very) few words who prefers to let his actions speak for him. Anyone with even a passing interest in where Russia is today, where it might be headed, and the implication for the rest of the world will find this book well worth their time.