As
history tends to repeat itself, this work of non-fiction is a great example of
how the internal political workings of a great nation such as The United
States, Russia or any other influential country should be supervised or at least
be transparent enough to be criticized whenever certain notions or tendencies
seem to have not the benefit of its people in mind, but the personal gain of
its ruler and his immediate surrounding.
How
this can be established I don’t know, but what is happening in Russia seems to
be the very situation we need to control before it escalates and we are thrown
back 80 years in the past to events that I’m not wishing to relive.
I
just finished reading The New Tsar which is a work that contemplates who Putin
was, where he came from, he gradual rise to a position of great power and how
he has managed to put Russia into an iron grip.
The
Iron Curtain may have fallen in the 80’s, but Russia has again fallen victim to
the chokehold of a leader that rules not from within the heart but from his
dated perception of the world’s politics. Instead of antagonizing the other
political powers, Russia could have strengthened its humanitarian position, and
be the voice to reign in the power The United States have proven to have. Not in
the military sense, but as a voice asking and second-guessing. Putin has had
this particular gambit and used it successfully in the possible interference of
The United States in the Syrian conflict, but I’m guessing that power and
ambition is like an addiction and enough is never enough.
The
book by the hands of Steven Lee Myers, gives us a portrait of this autocratic
leader, albeit an obvious colored one, wherein his actions are painted as is,
but the notions behind his actions are clearly put in a black and white manner,
wherein Putin is a ghoul who needs blood.
This isn’t clear in the first half of the book, where we follow Putin from growing up in Leningrad as a small boy, but evidently very feisty. His nationalism is invoked in his teens as he sets working for the KGB as his goal.
This isn’t clear in the first half of the book, where we follow Putin from growing up in Leningrad as a small boy, but evidently very feisty. His nationalism is invoked in his teens as he sets working for the KGB as his goal.
The
KGB is then an intelligence office, an institution of contra-espionage, customs, security of the political leaders and
government buildings. It was as much a state within a state, always searching
for enemies, which proclaimed that brilliantly dosed violence was needed to
protect the Soviet Union.
Putin
realizes his dream. When working for the KGB he is sent to the DDR, which wasn’t
quite what he had dreamt of, but he took his work seriously. When working in
Dresden, he noted that East-Germany was an hard and totalitarian country that
he liked. But when the Soviet Union showed signs of disintegrating he stated
that the evident military superiority of the West was needed to reign in the leaders
of the Soviet Union.
His ambivalence was notable even then.
His ambivalence was notable even then.
After
the fall of the Soviet Union, Putin risked living a very glum and irrelevant
life. When his work as KGB-officer was no longer needed, he was in conflict
with himself of which path he needed to follow now. As it happened, a series of
events put him in close contact with the mayor of Leningrad, which was after a
referendum, named St-Petersburg again. He tasted the democracy that had fallen
into Russian hands and the corruption that seem to go hand in hand with it. He
got a taste of being in control, but also how it felt to lose that very
position and being forced to return to a uncertain future, much like he had
encountered after the Wall fell in Berlin.
His
steady growth for power hadn’t stopped, only stagnated, when he was called in
for a function in Moscow, where he worked under Jeltsin. Jeltsin, who didn’t
know what to think of this small and colorless man, grew to like his
steadfastness, which ultimately led to his position as prime minister shortly
before elections. Putin was the obvious choice.
Reigning
as president from 2000 until 2008, when Medvedev took over until 2012, Putin’s behavior
has been erratic. On one hand he was trying to establish Russia as a great
political and economic country, with bonds existing with the Western nations.
Conflicts in the middle-east where Western countries interfered, cooled down
those aspirations and he got a grudge against anything American as he saw them
as the nation that continually sought to undermine Russia’s power.
Aside of these events, inland the Kremlin put the media more and more on a leash, wherein nothing objective reached the ears and eyes of the millions of citizens. News was Kremlin-made and opposition scattered and destroyed, in a hundred different ways.
Aside of these events, inland the Kremlin put the media more and more on a leash, wherein nothing objective reached the ears and eyes of the millions of citizens. News was Kremlin-made and opposition scattered and destroyed, in a hundred different ways.
This
second part of the book, Putin has lost his humans side. He’s painted as a boogey
man searching for a conflict that will introduce the 21th century into a great
and bloody conflict. I’m not stating that the facts aren’t true, but they are
directing the reader into a certain position as I’m not sure whether any man
can be as black as he’s proclaimed to be. The reasons behind his behavior as of
late, to recall the annexation of the Krim as his latest feat, are not very
well stated in this novel ,probably because there isn’t enough information yet.
Although
this was a very good novel to get an insight of Russia’s political and economic
playing field, I’m of the opinion that it might be better to try and get
insight of someone’s decisions when the person is either dead or at least
bereaved of any immediate power. As it stands now, I’m getting the idea of how
Putin grew up to be the autocratic he is today, what his influences have been,
but I’m not getting that same sense trying to explain his recent actions. They
are still too fresh and I’m sure that we haven’t seen the full effect of what
has happened.