KNOW THY ENEMY!
Karen Dawisha, Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015) ("The contention of this book is that the group around Putin today is the same as the one that brought him to power from St. Petersburg in the 1990s and that the purpose of that project was never to embed Western-style democratic institutions and values. The group did not get lost on the path to democracy. They never took that path." Id. at 4-5. "It became clear to Russian and Western observers long before Putin started his third full term as president in 2012 that he operated a complex informal system in which subgroups were constantly balanced against each other, with Putin alone as the ultimate arbiter.. His power derived less form the institutional legitimacy conferred by being head of state than form the successful operation of a tribute system that obliged all participants to recognize his authority. In the words of American economist Clifford Gaddy from the Brookings Institution and Barry Ickes from Pennsylvania State University, Putin operates a 'protection racket' dependent on a code of behavior that severely punishes disloyalty while allowing access to economic predation on a world-historic scale for the inner core of his elite. By his third term, he had created a highly controlled security system able to use the law, the media, and the security forces as a means of intimidation, and critically balancing, rival economic elites. Others have called it a 'corporation,' Kremlin, Inc.,' 'a sistema,' or a 'corporatist-klepocractic regime." Id. at 36. "When Putin gained the presidency a third time, in 2012, his first actions were not to reach out to those in society who might participate in the modernization of the country. Rather he cracked down on the freedoms required to build a civil society and an economy based on performance, not connections, The nonprofit sector was hit hard, with new laws requiring them to register as 'foreign agents'; ordinary middle-class demonstrators with no previous record were imprisoned after the may 2013 Bolotnaya protest gassing electoral fraud; and new restrictions on the Internet threatened to completely eliminate the press freedoms that had largely already been driven form mainstream newspapers and television." Id. at 317. QUERY: Could it happen here, in American, under Trump, Bannon, Sessions, and such? Recall that Trump wants to change slander/libel laws to make it easier to sue the press. There have been characterizations of political protesters as "professional protesters,' with a suggestion they are, therefore, less deserving of free speech and free association protections. There is the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-black anti-poor, anti-intellectual stance of the administration. Not to mention anti-women, anti-Planned Parenthood, etc. Session attacks the concept of sanctuary cities. And so it goes. There is mote than a scent of authoritarianism is in the air.).
Masha Gessen, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (New York: Riverhead Books, 2012) (From the back cover: "In 1999, the 'Family' surrounding Boris Yeltsin went looking for a successor to the ailing and increasingly unpopular president. Vladimir Putin, with very little governmental or administrative experience beyond having served as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, and a brief stint as director of the secret police, nevertheless seemed the perfect choice: a 'faceless' creature whom Yeltsin and his cronies thought they could mold in their own image. Suddenly the boy who had scrapped his way through postwar Leningrad schoolyards, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see in him the progressive leader of their dreams, even as with ruthless efficiency Putin dismantled the country's media, wrested control and wealth from a burgeoning business class, and decimated the fragile mechanisms of democracy. Within a few brief years, virtually every obstacle to his unbridled command was removed and every opposing voice silenced, with political reveals and critics driven into exile or the the grave.").
Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (New York: Riverhead Books, 2014) (From the back cover: "On February 21, 2012, five young women entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. In neon-colored dresses, tights, and balaclavas, they performed a 'punk prayer' beseeching the 'Mother of God' to 'chase Putin out.' They were quickly shut down by security, and in the weeks and months that followed, three of the women were arrested and tried, and two were sentenced to remote prison colonies. But the incident captured international headlines, and footage of it went viral. People across the globe recognized not only a fierce act of political confrontation but also an inspired work of art that, in a time and place saturated with lies, found a new way to speak the truth.").
David E. Hoffman, The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia, rev'd & updated New York: PublicAffairs, 2002, 2011).
Garry Kasparov, Winer is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped (New York: PublicAffairs, 2015) ("The asecension of Vladimir Putin--a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB--to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away form democracy. Yet in the intervening years--as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him--Putin has grown not only into a dictator by an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the center of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order." And, it is has been argued, the Donald J. Trump and associates are, perhaps unwittingly, in his pocket.).
Arkady Ostrovsky, The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War (New York: Viking, 2015) ("In this book I have sought an answer to the question of how Russia got here by following its story and its dominant ideas over the past quarter-century, hoping to illuminate key turning points in its history. My main characters are not politicians or economists but those who generated the 'meaning' of the country, who composed the storyline, who produced and broadcast it and in the process led the country from freedom to war. They are ideologists, journalists, editors, television executives: people in charge of the message and the media." Id. at 6. "Putin's support has traditionally rested on two pillars: a growing economy and Russia's international prestige, measured in terms of its confrontation with America. With incomes falling and consumption plummeting, the need to demonstrate Russia's geopolitical clout and military might was all the greater. Syria, where the weakness of American policy was particularly stark, provided a perfect opportunity. Formally Russia stated that it was fighting ISIS, but it bombs fell on areas held by the moderate opposition supported by the West." Id. at 323.).
Richard Shirreff, War with Russia: An Urgent Warning from Senior Military Command: A Novel (New York & London: Quercus, 2016).
Mikhail Zygar, All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin (New York: PublicAffairs, 2016) (From the book jacket: "Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putins'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.").
