Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin

This stubborn stance cost him greatly, as he was made an example of when Putin finally arrested the tycoon on his private jet. Shaken, the other oligarchs learned an important lesson: One memorable example focuses on the supposedly shifting internal demographics, as some assume that Russia is facing a simultaneous aging crisis and new-born baby shortage which, if unaddressed, will lead inexorably to an irreversible decline.

Not so, counters Judah, who argues that often undocumented influxes of labourers from well-populated but impoverished neighbouring Central Asia countries primarily former Soviety satellites have taken up the jobs refused by their hosts and stabilized population growth.

Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin by Ben Judah

Despite his obvious talents, this work is not immune from criticism. As Judah emphatically and repeatedly points out, Putin has been far from perfect, but his abundant criticisms of him seem less newsworthy when one conducts a quick assessment of the opposition neo-Nazis or violent Islamophobes, anyone? Moreover, this reviewer would also have liked to see less repetition of some of the same facts ad nauseum references to the disparities in life expectancies between different regions of Russia comes immediately to mind.

These negative comments are, however, very minor, for this is a fantastically engaging book. Like other countries , Russia is suffering from several problems that are all raging simultaneously — the much-ballyhooed examples of resource dependency, stark inequality, outrageous Muslim persecution, and social instability are only the tip of the iceberg.

He was educated at Oxford. Read more reviews by Joel. Click here to cancel reply. If Putin's good fortune ends - say, with sanctions, or a decline in foreign investment or oil prices, then his Potemkin villages might collapse too. But who is to say when or how this will happen? After all, the Soviet Union, that former Russian empire, collapsed in the span of thirty years then three days. What is the future of Putin's Russia? This is what he can rightfully claim to have built, this is why we all should be so grateful.

Life has improved, life has become more joyous. It has been ordered to be so. View all 3 comments. Mar 03, Mikey B. The author explains well the rise, and let us call it the beginning of the demise of Vladimir Putin. The vast majority of Russians wanted the stability that Putin promised and to some extent implemented. He did this in a series of steps. First he emasculated the TV media. Signi The author explains well the rise, and let us call it the beginning of the demise of Vladimir Putin. Significantly the Putin regime ignored the rising internet, so unlike China they did not put up firewalls; this would have grave consequences as the internet in Russia expanded and became an alternative mass media communication network.

The other step taken was to kick out or imprison the oil oligarchs Mikhail Khodorkovsky being one. The Putin Court wanted to have control and the money that the oil entrepreneurs had. They placed the vast oil industry under state control. With this the state made millions of dollars — and this was not necessarily to the benefit of the Russian people. So Putin effectively brought the traditional media under control and made lots of money from the oil resources.

Also the Kremlin took over appointments of all governors across the wide breadth of Russia. Page my book Under Putin the Russian ruling class has become one of the richest in the world Up until Putin was extremely popular with Russians. He did bring stability — inflation was curbed, salaries paid, and many more consumer goods became available. But then came the recession and Russia was hit hard, more than most countries. Page my book The system is corruption itself A society where everything has a price [bribe].

Many aspects of Russia are discussed in this book and the author cannot be accused of minimizing personalities and problems. At times it seems like a vendetta. Here are some of the serious problems he outlines: The opposition parties are disorganized and anarchic. There is no effective opposition and Putin has succeeded well in characterizing them as fools and delinquents. There is a vast difference and disconnect between Moscow and the hinterland. In the countryside 38 percent of the population poverty is at a Third World level. Most of the wealthy live in Moscow.

Drug and alcohol abuse continue to increase. Russians are becoming increasingly nationalistic and xenophobic. They are resentful of the Muslim migration to the cities. Putin is giving huge dollar handouts to the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Opposition journalists, electoral candidates, protestors can be physically threatened and sometimes killed. Ukraine is seen as a province and not as a separate country. Russia is being pulled in the West by the E.

There is no control from below no elections. With all the tremendous changes in the last twenty-five years what will Russia be like in ten or twenty years? View all 27 comments. Sep 09, Steven Z. Judah who is a superb reporter and political scientist has traveled to most areas of Russia and seems to predict that the weight of Putinism will eventually will lead to its collapse, however the current Ukrainian crisis has improved his popularity among the Russian people as he appeals to Russian nationalism and feeds the paranoia many in Russia feel when compared with the west.

At the age of eleven he went to a local KGB office and asked to join and being politely rebuffed he grew obsessed with patriotic spy films and the martial arts. He followed that experience as a senior official in St. Petersburg, in a failed democracy. Judah describes Putin as being from the lost generation of the s. Petersburg becoming his springboard to power.

According to Judah, the West liked the idea that Boris Yeltsin surrounded himself with young reformers, but in fact he brought the military and FSB into government. With many feeling Russia was close to collapse the men around Yeltsin needed a protector who could win the next election. Petersburg, first started to work in. At the same time oligarchs threw money around resulting in an expansion of an urban middle class particularly in Moscow and consumerism that allowed politicians to reach their constituency.

The invasion of Chechnya catapulted Putin from a nobody into one of the most popular politicians in the country. In the midst of this process Putin turned more authoritarian as he imposed his version of consensus on the oligarchs, particularly in the energy sector, as oligarchs blocked any increase in taxes on oil profits. A further threat to Putin was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who in was considered the richest man in Russia.

Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin

Further, he allows the reader to understand that once in power Putin was able to crush any hope of liberal economic reform or political change. Judah is correct that as long as the energy sector flourished the Russian economy would do well, but if a crisis developed, Russia and Putin would be in trouble. No matter what the short term economic success Russia experienced, the cancer of corruption would dominate the Russian economic model and undermine any successes.

A crisis arose in Russian areas of Georgia that provoked Russian military action. The underlying cause of Russian action as described by John J. What the West failed to realize is that the birthplace of Stalin, Georgia, and the Ukraine have historically been part of Russia and those areas had been seen as vital since the Tsarist times.

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At the same time Putin decided not to run for reelection and allowed Dimitry Medvedev to assume the presidency. That stability was broken in September, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States and the resulting economic ripple that encompassed the world economy.

By , the Russian economy had contracted by 8. On September 24, it was announced that Medvedev would not seek reelection and Putin would return. Putin fought back with a conservative culture war. Having lost the most advanced part of the nation, Putin would direct his energies to winning over the most backward part of the nation. Putin travels all over Russia visiting areas liberal politicians would never have thought of.

But then again, it might not happen at all. Jul 14, Jerusalem Demsas rated it liked it. This book was a very good overview of the rise and fall of Putin politics. It would have gotten four stars if not for two annoying writing tics: It is not necessary, and is actually a mark of poor writing and lack of faith in your reader's intelligence, to continually attempt to underscore the poverty and failure of the Russian state by comparing it to random statistics re: Why is it that all of the women you reference are described in terms of the quality of their appearance?

One woman literally was described as having 'come-hither eyes' what?? And you refer to some women as hags at the end? These problems really marred what was a pretty thorough and interesting book. Sep 10, Rebecka rated it really liked it Shelves: Not the fastest read out there, but definitely worth your while if you want to understand "the thing" about Putin. The structure of this book really… makes me feel nervous. As in, if I were to write something like this on a similar topic, I would be panicking and writing stuff simultaneously all over the place and, most likely, end up with chaos, repeating myself endlessly.

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The author, however, pulls it off spectacularly. Every chapter fits in where it is, every story is correctl Impressive book. Every chapter fits in where it is, every story is correctly inserted into every chapter: This has the result of making the book pleasant to read, entertaining and - provided you don't know all the details yourself already - almost something of a thriller.

Judah's book is not dry facts combined with more dry facts with a heaping of statistics on top. It's much more personal, much more flowery , making the number of pages rise more than strictly necessary, but also turning this into a non-fiction book you don't need to take a break from because your head is exploding. The book also opens up a window on the far east, which I found immensely interesting. And, all the statistics presented are actually fascinating.

Most often because they show how crazy a country Russia is. Jan 03, Vitaliy rated it it was amazing. Jun 22, Kim Leandersson rated it really liked it. Interesting, different from many other book on the topic since this also covers the outside-Moscow perspective. If you want to have a non-western perspective on the protests then this sure is the book for you. Although there are a few valuable nuggets in the book, I feel the majority of the material is questionable.

The author states that he interviewed "thousands" of Russians, but only references a handful.

In addition, he makes sweeping conclusions over and over again without firm foundations. I found the exploration of Putin's childhood interesting, and I agree with the author that Putin is a fearful, deeply insecure man. On the other hand, I cannot agree with the author when he states 2. On the other hand, I cannot agree with the author when he states that a majority of the Russian people resent Putin and want change. It may be true, but I don't feel that the author made a solid case for this assertion, and at least on the surface, it appears that the Russian people love Putin.

Dictators and oligarchs throughout history have used fear, propaganda, and misdirection to maintain rule. It is my opinion that Putin's adventures in Georgia, Sochi, and Ukraine are obvious examples of diverting his people from his deficiencies in governing to remain in power. It may be that with the drop in oil prices, increasing sanctions, and the accelerating recession in Russia, Putin will find his position vulnerable and he will have to flee the country.

Only time will tell. The text contains numerous grammar and usage errors, is uneven, and wanders off on tangents that have little or nothing to do with the thesis. Sep 10, Mary rated it liked it Shelves: Great descriptions and interpretations of Russian points of view from outside Moscow and great instruction about Kadyrov vs. Kremlin siloviki probably germane to Putin's recent disappearance and Nemtsov hit.

Author also succeeds at articulating what is missing in Russian political life and prescription for future. Exhaustive travels, daring, honest and fluent. Don't agree with that Russia was out of love with Putin a few years back. Author seems to draw conclusions by talking wi Great descriptions and interpretations of Russian points of view from outside Moscow and great instruction about Kadyrov vs. Author seems to draw conclusions by talking with people here and there. Not sure I trust that. Then there's the writing.

To be fair, he almost certainly drank too much and didn't sleep enough during, at least, the prelude to writing this book. Mar 03, Dav rated it it was ok. A fascinating story in desperate need of an editor. Despite its rambling length and disheveled state of editorial disarray, I couldn't stop reading it because Russia is a fascinatingly fucked up self-destructive place. It appears there's no hero anywhere in the country. All the players are flawed in various ways, although perhaps noble in other ways, including Putin.

Aug 23, Pere rated it it was amazing. Nov 09, Mehmet Akif Koc rated it really liked it. An excellent published book on last two decades history of Russian society and politics. In particular, the chapters of 'Moscow is not Russia', 'Moscow the Colonialist' and 'Chinese Nightmares' are outstanding. Sep 21, Simon Woell rated it really liked it. A bit repetitive at time, but generally fantastic.