Putin Country

Short-listed for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize More than twenty years ago, the NPR correspondent Anne Garrels first visited Chelyabinsk, a gritty military-industrial center a thousand miles east of Moscow. The longtime home of the Soviet nuclear program, the Chelyabinsk region contained beautiful lakes, shuttered factories, mysterious closed cities, and some of the most polluted places on earth. Garrels’s goal was to chart the aftershocks of the U.S.S.R.’s collapse by traveling to Russia’s heartland. Returning again and again, Garrels found that the area’s new freedoms and opportunities were exciting but also traumatic. As the economic collapse of the early 1990s abated, the city of Chelyabinsk became richer and more cosmopolitan, even as official corruption and intolerance for minorities grew more entrenched. Sushi restaurants proliferated; so did shakedowns. In the neighboring countryside, villages crumbled into the ground. Far from the glitz of Moscow, the people of Chelyabinsk were working out their country’s destiny, person by person. In Putin Country, Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of Middle Russia. We meet upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists who champion the rights of orphans and disabled children, and ostentatious mafiosi. We discover surprising subcultures, such as a vibrant underground gay community and a circle of determined Protestant evangelicals. And we watch doctors and teachers trying to cope with inescapable payoffs and institutionalized negligence. As Vladimir Putin tightens his grip on power and war in Ukraine leads to Western sanctions and a lower standard of living, the local population mingles belligerent nationalism with a deep ambivalence about their country’s direction. Through it all, Garrels sympathetically charts an ongoing identity crisis. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union, what is Russia? What kind of pride and cohesion can it offer? Drawing on close friendships sustained over many years, Garrels explains why Putin commands the loyalty of so many Russians, even those who decry the abuses of power they regularly encounter. Correcting the misconceptions of Putin’s supporters and critics alike, Garrels’s portrait of Russia’s silent majority is both essential and engaging reading at a time when cold war tensions are resurgent.

Vladimir Putin's image functions as a political talisman far outside of the borders of his own country. Studying material objects, fan fiction, and digital media, Putin Kitsch in America traces the satirical uses of Putin's public persona and how he stands as a foil for other world leaders. Uncovering a wide variety of material culture - satirical, scatological, even risqué - made possible by new print-on-demand technologies, Alison Rowley argues that the internet is crucial to the creation of contemporary Putin memorabilia. She explains that these items are evidence of young people's continued interest and participation in politics, even as some experts decry what they see as the opposite. The book addresses the ways in which explicit sexual references about government officials are used as everyday political commentary in the United States. The number of such references skyrocketed during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, and turning a critical eye to Putin kitsch suggests that the phenomenon will continue when Americans next return to the polls. An examination of how the Russian president's image circulates via memes, parodies, apps, and games, Putin Kitsch in America illustrates how technological change has shaped both the kinds of kitsch being produced and the nature of political engagement today.

This book describes the strategies used by President Putin from 2000 onwards to recreate 'Greater Russia', that is a Russia that controls most of the territory of the former Soviet Union. It shows the subtlety of the means of control, often through creating economic dependencies in the 'near abroad', including exploiting energy dependency, through prolonging other political and military dependencies, and sometimes through traditional 'power politics'. Bertil Nygren argues that after seven years in power the results of this strategy are beginning to show, providing comprehensive coverage of Russia’s relations to the former Soviet territories of the CIS countries, including Ukraine and Putin's role in the events surrounding the 'Orange Revolution', Belarus and the attempts to form a union, the Caucasus and Russia's role in the various conflicts, Moldova, including the Transdniester conflict, and Central Asia. This is an important subject for Russian studies experts and international relations scholars in general.

Summary of Putin Country by Anne Garrels | Includes Analysis Preview: Putin Country is an account of foreign correspondent Anne Garrels's travels in, and study of, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Chelyabinsk is a region of south central Russia located at the southern end of the Ural mountain chain, on the border of Europe and Asia. Although cosmopolitan Moscow is familiar to European and Western observers, Chelyabinsk is more typical of Russia as a whole, not least in its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 after decades of Communist rule. People in Russia were at first hopeful that the country would experience a new era of openness and prosperity. Instead, President Boris Yeltsin's regime was notoriously corrupt. The rapid transition away from government economic control led to chaos and economic hardship. The chaos of the 1990s made people in Chelyabinsk welcome the rise of Putin in 2000. Many Russians view Putin as a strong leader working to restore... PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Putin Country · Overview of the book · Important People · Key Takeaways · Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

The Story of How Russia Becomes a Democracy after Losing to Ukraine. To understand the significance of this book, Does Putin Have to Die?, you must first understand the significance of the author: Ilya Ponomarev was a member of the Russian Parliament, or State Duma, from 2007–2016. In 2014, he was the only member of the Russian Parliament to vote against the annexation of Crimea. However, this was not the first time he survived after opposing Putin. His vote against the annexation of Crimea did, however, lead to him being forced into exile from his own country while he was a sitting member of Parliament. At the time of the annexation of Crimea, Ponomarev predicted it would lead to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. He also vowed at the time that if Russia did invade Ukraine, he would fight on the side of Ukraine. And that’s what he is doing today. Opposing Putin is a risky proposition; for instance, a fellow Russian Parliament member turned dissident, Denis Voronenkov, was on his way to see Ponomarev when he was shot and killed in March 2017 by Russian intelligence. Ponomarev has lived in Kyiv since 2016. As a result of Voronenkov’s murder, he now receives personal protection by the Ukrainian Security Service. And as he said in a recent television interview, “I keep a machine gun by the door.” But if you ask Ponomarev why he joined Ukraine’s armed territorial defense forces, he will reply: "I’m not fighting against Russia, I'm fighting against Putin and Putinism and Russian fascism.” In this book, Ponomarev offers his plan for how the Russian people can purge their country of Putin, Putinism, and dictatorship, and turn it into a democracy.

In this revised version that includes an exclusive new chapter on the Russia-Ukraine war, renowned foreign policy expert Angela Stent examines how Putin created a paranoid and polarized world—and increased Russia's status on the global stage. How did Russia manage to emerge resurgent on the world stage and play a weak hand so effectively? Is it because Putin is a brilliant strategist? Or has Russia stepped into a vacuum created by the West's distraction with its own domestic problems and US ambivalence about whether it still wants to act as a superpower? Putin's World examines the country's turbulent past, how it has influenced Putin, the Russians' understanding of their position on the global stage and their future ambitions—and their conviction that the West has tried to deny them a seat at the table of great powers since the USSR collapsed. This book looks at Russia's key relationships—its downward spiral with the United States, Europe, and NATO; its ties to China, Japan, the Middle East; and with its neighbors, particularly the fraught relationship with Ukraine. Putin's World will help Americans understand how and why the post-Cold War era has given way to a new, more dangerous world, one in which Russia poses a challenge to the United States in every corner of the globe—and one in which Russia has become a toxic and divisive subject in US politics.

Putin Country by Anne Garrels | Summary & Analysis Preview: Putin Country is an account of foreign correspondent Anne Garrels’s travels in, and study of, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Chelyabinsk is a region of south central Russia located at the southern end of the Ural mountain chain, on the border of Europe and Asia. Although cosmopolitan Moscow is familiar to European and Western observers, Chelyabinsk is more typical of Russia as a whole, not least in its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 after decades of Communist rule. People in Russia were at first hopeful that the country would experience a new era of openness and prosperity. Instead, President Boris Yeltsin’s regime was notoriously corrupt. The rapid transition away from government economic control led to chaos and economic hardship. The chaos of the 1990s made people in Chelyabinsk welcome the rise of Putin in 2000. Many Russians view Putin as a strong leader working to restore… PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary of Putin Country · Overview of the book · Important People · Key Takeaways · Analysis of Key Takeaways About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

This edition features • illustrations • a linked Table of Contents CONTENTS (abridged list) CHAPTER I. Natural Conditions Greek Colonies on the Black Sea The Scythians Ancient Traces of Slavonic Race CHAPTER II. Hunnish Invasion Distribution of Races Slavonic Religion Primitive Political Conceptions CHAPTER III. The Scandinavian in Russia Rurik Oleg Igor Olga's Vengeance Olga a Christian Sviatoslaf Russia the Champion of the Greek Empire in Bulgaria Norse Dominance in Heroic Period CHAPTER IV. System of Appanages Vladimir the Sinner Becomes Vladimir the Saint Russia Forcibly Christianized Causes Underlying Antagonism Between Greek and Latin Church Russia Joined to the Greek Currents and Separated from the Latin CHAPTER V. Principalities Headship of House of Rurik Relation of Grand Prince to the Others Civilizing Influences from Greek Sources Cruelty not Indigenous with the Slavs How and Whence it Came Primitive Social Elements The Drujina End of Heroic Period Andrew Bogoliubski New Political Center at Suzdal ... CHAPTER XXV. Emancipation a Disappointment Social Discontent Birth of Nihilism Assassination of Alexander II. The Peasants' Wreath Alexander III. A Joyless Reign His Death CHAPTER XXVI. Nicholas II. Russification of Finland Invitation to Disarmament Brief Review of Conditions SUPPLEMENT. Conditions Preceding Russo-Japanese War Nature of Dispute Results of Conflict Peace Conference at Portsmouth Treaty Signed A National Assembly Dissolution of First Russian Parliament Present Outlook LIST OF PRINCES.