The Art of the Impossible (Vols. 1-3) [Hardcover]

Boris Berezovsky (Author), Yuri Felshtinsky (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

This three volume edition of articles, interviews, statements and letters, is written by well known Russian politician and businessman Boris Berezovsky, who lives presently in exile in London. The collection is a brilliant reflection of the current political struggle between the past and the present Russia, between new wave reformist Boris Berezovsky and the authoritarian Russian president Vladimir Putin. Each volume comes with an index, and should be very useful to anyone who is interested in contemporary Russia.

The second volume includes documented materials, statements and interviews describing the whole story of the conflict between Alexander Litvinenko and FSB (Russian Security Service) for the period of 1998-2005.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

I am a businessman who turned to politics, an entrepreneur, and a communications executive. But in Russia and in the West, I have been called an oligarch, someone who wielded unknown power in the Yeltsin years and who does not believe in democracy. This was an unfair portrayal, but I never felt seriously compelled to refute it until recently.

The current situation in Russia has made it necessary for me to tell the world of concerns I have for the future of democracy there...

I had hoped that Mr. Putin would preserve the fundamental accomplishment of the Yeltsin era--the national commitment to democracy--while correcting some of the mistakes from that time. But his performance in the year he has been in power--he was elected in March but has been running the country since August 1999, when Boris Yeltsin named him as his successor--has been a disheartening disappointment. Not only did Mr. Putin not start solving these pressing problems, but he initiated the dismantling of some revolutionary achievements of the Yeltsin era.

He has formally (so far only formally) destroyed the basis of the democratic federation by replacing elected representatives in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament with appointees. Moreover, he abrogated for himself the power to dismiss regional governors elected by the people. In doing so, the new president concentrated all the country's political power in his hands.

Most recently, he has taken steps to subordinate the mass media and has begun using law enforcement agencies to put pressure on both independent businesses and political opponents...

Mr. Putin continues to insist on a military solution to the ethnic conflict in Chechnya, a path leading nowhere. The fear of the authorities' unchecked power has begun to find its way back into the everyday lives of ordinary Russians.

By and large, Mr. Putin is gradually heading toward authoritarian rule. For ages, the supreme leader of Russia--be it a czar, general secretary or president--wielded practically unlimited power...

Boris Berezovsky

Product Details

• Hardcover: 2230 pages
• Publisher: Terra-USA; 1st edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978735005
• ISBN-13: 978-0978735005
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 5.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,462,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Art of The Impossible: How to become a mafia boss and still be portrayed as a victim by everyone, June 12, 2007

By 

Luis F. A. Holtz "Luis Felipe Holtz" (Uppsala, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of the Impossible (Vols. 1-3) (Hardcover)

Boris Abramovich Berezovsky has always been concerned about the rising democratic institutions in Russia since the last breaths of the former USSR. Concerned at the point when democracy and its prerrogatives were useful only for his own affairs. This evil man ( yes, it sounds smug, but I just can't help it ) and other Berezovsky-like oligarchs have corrupted and distorted the very inner core of the incipient democracy in Russia with just one aim in sight: take as much political and economic advantage as possible of Russia's new reality. A very chaotic one, it should be said. Berezovsky, now bearing British passport, has a sinister and unclear past hovering over his immaculate image as a victim of the Putin government: drug trafficking, murder ( including the former Forbes editor's in Russia Paul Klebnikov ), arms dealing and close ties with all sorts of criminal groups and mafia gangs in and out of Russia. With Putin in power, Berezovsky and other oligarchs fled Russia straight to Britain, where they found unexplainable protection from British authorities.
That's what is more weird for me: the British government, well known on denying official citizenship for legal and hard-working immigrants ( remember Mohammed al Fayed, the Egyptian owner of Harrods, which attracts many turists and lots of money to Britain, has been denied British citizenship over the decades ), promptly gives it to such men as Berezovky and his Chechen pals, the latter clearly involved in the Beslan terrible mass-murder.
I would definitely say a big "no" to this propaganda book. Without any doubt, a round zero-star book.