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Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? Hardcover – September 30, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“An important and valuable work” (The Wall Street Journal)
“A damning account of Vladimir Putin's rise to power and of the vast dimensions of the corruption—political and economic—that both reigns and rots in Russia. . . . Dawisha's research is extremely impressive. . . . The light of Dawisha's research penetrates a deep moral darkness, revealing something ugly—and dangerous.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“Putin’s Kleptocracy should be on the reading list of anyone who wishes to understand the true nature of Putin’s regime, which, as Dawisha correctly states, is ‘committed to a life of looting without parallel.’” (Washington Free Beacon)
“A damning account of Vladimir Putin's rise to power and of the vast dimensions of the corruption—political and economic—that both reigns and rots in Russia. . . . Dawisha's research is extremely impressive. . . . The light of Dawisha's research penetrates a deep moral darkness, revealing something ugly—and dangerous.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“Putin’s Kleptocracy should be on the reading list of anyone who wishes to understand the true nature of Putin’s regime, which, as Dawisha correctly states, is ‘committed to a life of looting without parallel.’” (Washington Free Beacon)
About the Author
Karen Dawisha is the Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and the director of the University’s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. She has written five previous books, eight edited volumes, and numerous journal articles, and continues to do research and teaching in the areas of post-communist transitions and Russian politics.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By
Sinohey
TOP 1000 REVIEWER on October 8, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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Earlier this year, I read that Cambridge Press refused to publish this book for fear of a libel lawsuit. Of course, I was intrigued and curious about its contents.
It is a no holds barred expose about the deeply ingrained and rampant corruption permeating Russia since the fall of the USSR. Ms Dawisha lays out in great details based on primary sources, WiKileaks and extensive research of public documents - the machinations and illegal predatory schemes perpetrated by Putin and his inner circle, beginning from 1990 to the present. The author exposes Putin's rise to power from his early days as a KGB officer in East Germany to his stint in St. Petersburg, where he was embroiled with the local Mafia, ex-KGB apparatchiks and bureaucrats in several shady financial schemes involving the diversion of municipal funds, illegal arms shipments, the food shortage scandal of 1991, local gambling industry and money laundering for the Cali drug cartel through the Real Estate Board of St. Petersburg. Putin "was a thug and a crook from the very beginning, and the people of St. Petersburg knew it."
As head of the FSB and with the support of a close knit cabal, Putin rapidly rose to power and by 2005 was elected (fraudulently according to the book and others) as President of Russia.
By the end of the USSR, the KGB secreted about $300 billion in currency and gold outside the country. Funds that they then used to purchase industries and banks in the new Russia. According to Credit Suisse, today there are about 110 billionaires in Russia where the median personal income is only $871 per month. A cabal of oligarchs, Mafiosos and ex-KGB and FSB cronies run the state through Putin, by usurping all the levers of power, production, commerce and finance.Read more ›
It is a no holds barred expose about the deeply ingrained and rampant corruption permeating Russia since the fall of the USSR. Ms Dawisha lays out in great details based on primary sources, WiKileaks and extensive research of public documents - the machinations and illegal predatory schemes perpetrated by Putin and his inner circle, beginning from 1990 to the present. The author exposes Putin's rise to power from his early days as a KGB officer in East Germany to his stint in St. Petersburg, where he was embroiled with the local Mafia, ex-KGB apparatchiks and bureaucrats in several shady financial schemes involving the diversion of municipal funds, illegal arms shipments, the food shortage scandal of 1991, local gambling industry and money laundering for the Cali drug cartel through the Real Estate Board of St. Petersburg. Putin "was a thug and a crook from the very beginning, and the people of St. Petersburg knew it."
As head of the FSB and with the support of a close knit cabal, Putin rapidly rose to power and by 2005 was elected (fraudulently according to the book and others) as President of Russia.
By the end of the USSR, the KGB secreted about $300 billion in currency and gold outside the country. Funds that they then used to purchase industries and banks in the new Russia. According to Credit Suisse, today there are about 110 billionaires in Russia where the median personal income is only $871 per month. A cabal of oligarchs, Mafiosos and ex-KGB and FSB cronies run the state through Putin, by usurping all the levers of power, production, commerce and finance.Read more ›
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By
Terry Bishop
on October 12, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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This in a comprehensive treatment on Putin's conversion of the Russian state into his personal fiefdom. See page eight, in the introduction: " . . . from the beginning, Putin and his circle sought to create an authoritarian regime ruled by a close-knit cabal with embedded interests, plans, and capabilities, who used democracy for decoration rather than direction. In other words, Russia is both a democratic failure and a resounding success--that is, a success for Putin and his cronies and a success on their terms." I recommend this to any reader interested in Putin's regime generallyand how he has turned Russia into his personal enterprise specifically.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By
AY
on October 13, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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Read it
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8 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By
Carlton Loeber
on October 1, 2014
Format: Hardcover
1 Comment
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this is what President Obama has been hiding from the American people.. For more informatIon see the site ... the Kremlin for dummies. Com
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3 of 34 people found the following review helpful
By
N. Burlakoff
on October 3, 2014
Format: Hardcover
21 Comments
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Ever since Obama decided to relaunch the Cold War, open season was declared on Vladimir Putin's person and character. Not that there was much positive ink being spilled about this extraordinarily successful leader in Western media, beforehand.
For those of us who lived through the first Cold War, the genre of slander literature is quite familiar: lurid images of secrets and underworld connections are intertwined with illicit funds, intrigue, power politics, orgies, government secrets, unsubstantiated innuendos, dubious analogies, and vastly exaggerated claims. Money has become God, in American culture since the 1950's, so this particular book chooses that theme to focus on. Otherwise, it is pretty much in line of what has been written about Russian and, particularly, Communist leaders (I don't believe much of a distinction is made in most US minds) for quite some time. It is not accidental that Cambridge University Press turned the book down and refused to publish it.
So, if you enjoy froth and would like anti-Putin prejudices to be reinforced this is the perfect book for you. If you would like to learn something of substance, however, there are serious books available by American and other scholars.
For those of us who lived through the first Cold War, the genre of slander literature is quite familiar: lurid images of secrets and underworld connections are intertwined with illicit funds, intrigue, power politics, orgies, government secrets, unsubstantiated innuendos, dubious analogies, and vastly exaggerated claims. Money has become God, in American culture since the 1950's, so this particular book chooses that theme to focus on. Otherwise, it is pretty much in line of what has been written about Russian and, particularly, Communist leaders (I don't believe much of a distinction is made in most US minds) for quite some time. It is not accidental that Cambridge University Press turned the book down and refused to publish it.
So, if you enjoy froth and would like anti-Putin prejudices to be reinforced this is the perfect book for you. If you would like to learn something of substance, however, there are serious books available by American and other scholars.
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