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Ben Judah

Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin Hardcover – June 18, 2013

by Ben Judah (Author)

4.4 201 ratings

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From Kaliningrad on the Baltic to the Russian Far East, journalist Ben Judah has travelled throughout Russia and the former Soviet republics, conducting extensive interviews with President Vladimir Putin’s friends, foes, and colleagues, government officials, business tycoons, mobsters, and ordinary Russian citizens. Fragile Empire is the fruit of Judah’s thorough research: a probing assessment of Putin’s rise to power and what it has meant for Russia and her people. Despite a propaganda program intent on maintaining the cliché of stability, Putin’s regime was suddenly confronted in December 2011 by a highly public protest movement that told a different side of the story. Judah argues that Putinism has brought economic growth to Russia but also weaker institutions, and this contradiction leads to instability. The author explores both Putin’s successes and his failed promises, taking into account the impact of a new middle class and a new generation, the Internet, social activism, and globalization on the president’s impending leadership crisis. Can Russia avoid the crisis of Putinism? Judah offers original and up-to-the-minute answers.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

June 18, 2013
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0300181213
ISBN-13

978-0300181210
See all details

16
Hardcover
10 offers from $22.20

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Judah's dynamic account of the rise (and fall-in-progress) of Russian President Vladimir Putin convincingly addresses just why and how Putin became so popular, and traces the decisions and realizations that seem to be leading to his undoing. The former Reuters Moscow reporter maps Putin's career and impact on modern Russia through wide-ranging research and has an eye for illuminating and devastating quotes, as when a reporter in dialogue with Putin says, "I lost the feeling that I lived in a free country. I have not started to feel fear." To which Putin responds, "Did you not think that this was what I was aiming for: that one feeling disappeared, but the other did not appear?" His style, however, feels hurried, an effect of which is occasional losses of narrative clarity. In some cases limited information is available, and his pace-maintaining reliance on euphemistic, metaphorical, and journalistic language can leave readers underserved and confused. Judah is at his best when being very specific, and perhaps the book's achievement is that it makes comprehensible how Putin got to where he is; those wondering how Putin became and remained so popular will benefit from this sober, well-researched case. (June)

Review

"Ben Judah, a young freelance writer, paints a more journalistic – and more passionate – picture in ‘Fragile Empire’. He shuttles to and fro across Russia’s vast terrain, finding criminals, liars, fascists and crooked politicians, as well as the occasional saintly figure." —The Economist (The Economist 2013-05-09)

"A beautifully written and very lively study of Russia that argues that the political order created by Vladimir Putin is stagnating – undermined by corruption and a failure to modernise economically. Judah’s reporting stretches from the Kremlin to Siberia and has a clear moral sense, without being preachy." — Gideon Rachman, Financial Times (Gideon Rachman Financial Times 2013-06-29)

"Judah is an intrepid reporter and classy political scientist [...] His lively account of his remote adventures forms the most enjoyable part of Fragile Empire, and puts me in mind of Chekhov's famous 1890 journey to Sakhalin Island." — Luke Harding, The Guardian (Luke Harding The Guardian 2013-06-27)

"The best of a recent crop of books on the Russian president, it describes the essential corruption of the system Putin created (supposedly) to clean up the country. It spans the extent of this huge country as well as the decade and a half that Putin has been in power." — Oliver Bullough, The Telegraph (Oliver Bullough The Telegraph 2013-07-11)

“Judah’s outstanding Fragile Empire travels up and down the curve of Putin’s popularity. . .This is a familiar narrative but Judah, only in his mid-twenties, explains it all with economy and panache. . .What makes Fragile Empire important, however, is its dissection of Putin’s decline in popularity in 2008. It is the first to tell the story not just of the Moscow protest movement but of the less visible, but no less real, dissatisfaction beyond the capital.”—Neil Buckley, Financial Times (Neil Buckley Financial Times 2013-07-20)

“[Judah’s] excellent book provides a wide-ranging and highly critical account of the current state of Russia. . . He also gives an insightful historical perspective on the rise of Putin.”—Amy Knight, New York Review of Books (Amy Knight New York Review of Books)

"Fragile Empire [is] a fluent and plausible account of Russian politics and society in the wake of the recent protests."—Andrew Monaghan, TLS (Andrew Monaghan Times Literary Review 2013-11-08)

“[An] astute new book on Russia.”—David Frum, The Atlantic (David Frum The Atlantic)

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Edition Unstated (June 18, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300181213
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300181210
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.88 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,265,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,135 in International Economics (Books)
- #2,942 in Russian History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 201 ratings

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Carl from Chicago

An Excellent Overview of Modern Russia

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2013

Verified Purchase

I picked up this book based on positive reviews in Bloomberg and elsewhere and was very impressed. I have a reasonably good understanding of Russia based on military history and a decent understanding of the global energy business.

The first thing that comes to my mind is how brave the author must be to go around Russia asking questions about Putin. From my understanding and this book that is a very risky thing to do since the primary purpose of the security apparatus in Russia is to keep Putin in power.

The book follows Putin from the chaos in post-collapse St Petersburg where he worked for a local politician through his election to presidency, the Medvedev years (which were actually the Putin years), and then back into his current stint in charge.

The book is not all negative about Putin, which is what I find most interesting. The oligarchs that took control of the energy and media companies were extremely un popular and Putin brought them to heel. This was in fact popular among much of the population. He also took energy revenues and used them to pay some salaries and pensions and bring some modest amount of stability to the poor. And Moscow was substantially re built with sky scrapers and other elements. He also resolved (for the time being) the situation in Chechnya by allying with the current warlord and this momentarily resolved a horrible active war that was being fought in an embarrasing way for Russia.

It is very interesting to see how close associates of Putin, even those in his Judo club and KGB days, have become billionaires. They have taken control of the energy infrastructure and then a swiss trading function is another source of his supposed vast personal wealth (unproven).

Judah talks to Navalny, the activist against Putin's latest election, and this is insightful because today Navalny is subject to a phantom prosecution designed to deter him from elective office. You can jump between the articles in the book and the latest news and this is very helpful.

There is a lot in this book. It covers an amazing amount of topics from coast to coast, including the border wars with China and the far, Far East. The author attempts nothing less than a comprehensive, border to border analysis of modern Russia.

32 people found this helpful

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O. Ralph Raymond

Vladimir Putin, Mistaken for a "Reform Democrat"--and for Too Long

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

A foremost journalistic interpreter of Post-Yeltsin Russia, Ben Judah shows how an obscure and mediocre mid-level KGB officer, his career languishing in a dead-end job off in the East German provinces, was within eight years after the Soviet collapse surprisingly placed in charge of what remained of the world's second superpower. This remarkable development was orchestrated by outgoing President Yeltsin's Kremlin cronies, thrashing about to find someone who would guarantee not only the President's security, but their own ill-gotten fortunes--and probably their lives as well--once the doddering and ill president abandoned the scene.

Judah shows that Vladimir Putin, mistaken at first as a "reform democrat" who would pursue the broad Yeltsin policy lines of democratization, marketization, and integration of Russia into the community of democratic states, was instead driven by a resentful and ruthless ambition to restore Russia to a position of Eurasian hegemony, a counter to the West which in his mind had so humiliated Moscow at the end of the Cold War.

Repression and cooptation of the media, cowing of "the oligarchs," redistribution of economic power in favor of his military and secret police retinue, reversal of democratic electoral reforms, recentralization of power, undermining of the institutions of an emerging civil society and contributing to a rising tide of official and unofficial corruption: all this Judah analyzes as the domestic ingredients raising Putin to tsar-like status in the new Russia. Putin gained further nationalistic popularity by repression and war against borderland ethnic minorities. Booming energy prices fueled by the global economic upsurge paid for it all, and allowed the KGB man to strut on the international stage and begin asserting his neo-imperial and restorationist ambitions whenever opportunity knocked.

The 2008 economic recession struck Russia and its oil-dependent and now globalized economy hard, and Putin's popularity began to sour. Economic downturn, conspicuous and corrupt wealth, official lawlessness, electoral fraud precipitated organized opposition and mass street protest.

Judah sets the stage for today's headlines: to restore Russia's love affair, Putin had to find victory abroad, something to stimulate what Russians call "hurrah patriotism" at home to offset growing domestic disillusion. Maybe a "short, glorious war" if opportunity allowed?

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Top reviews from other countries

Steven Kaufmann

Interesting but subjective and perhaps outdated view of Putin's Russia.

Reviewed in Canada on February 22, 2015

Verified Purchase

Description of Putin Russia two years ago. Predictions in the book about Putin's declining popularity have proven to be inaccurate. Nevertheless , interesting to read this somewhat subjective evaluation of the mood in Russia prior to the events in Ukraine.

Phil Tan

Great book gives you are real feel of Russia under ...

Reviewed in Australia on December 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

Great book gives you are real feel of Russia under Putin. Heavy reading in places and the Russian names are so hard to pronounce and remember. Recommend it for anyone that wants to understand the political environment in Russia today and in recent time

V. J.

Must read for those who are interested in Russian history

Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

I'm russian and was very involved in domestic politics. I know many many people mentioned in this book personally. I'm surprised how precise and factual the author was able to present the current situation and Putinism as a policy.

2 people found this helpful

Markiewski

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

Ben Judah has done a great deal of research for this book. Very informative. I highly recommend this book.

Edward B. Crutchley

. . but you can’t take the KGB out of the man

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read this remarkable but grim and unashamedly one-sided book during the 2014 Ukrainian affair, while no-one was sure how far Putin would go. Taking over after the chaos of the 90s, he has resorted to a Kremlin-controlled state. Proper checks and balances seem increasingly strong-armed by chekists in balaclavas, and right now they even seem to be crossing the border to do their dirty work.
The omens for countries bordering Russia do not seem good. Putin has little to lose or hold him back. On the one side, Ben Judah recalls the KGB’s own analysis that their then lieutenant-colonel possessed a stunted sense of danger. It stymied his career, and one could imagine that it may equally make him ignore the risk of ostracism and flight of precious energy customers in the future. On the other side, as president faced with growing resentment at home, Putin has spent furiously to placate the masses. Apart from increases in welfare spending and the like, the projects in Sochi and Vladivostok have been seen to be symptomatically of dubious priority and massively over-paid due to corruption. The state remains so dependent on oil for its income that, as a result of his actions, it has to sell at $110 a barrel to maintain equilibrium (up from $70 only five years before). With present oil prices slightly below, Putin must at least ensure that countries around him are entirely dependent on his exports, or else. That implies some degree of Kremlin control. Achieving this under the guise of protecting ethnic Russian communities outside Russia has provided the perfect context.
The majority of Russians may be behind him. The author talks of a fragile, fractured and frightened nation already prone to paranoia and still shell-shocked from the fall of the Soviet Union. The country watches European influence and NATO encroaching from the west, an internal unwanted invasion of Muslims from the Caucasus, and the threat of China from the east. It thinks that China might one day actively eye the three quarters of Russia’s landmass (i.e. east of the Urals) that Moscow subjugated only in the last 400 years. The last serious Sino-Soviet conflict was less than 50 years ago.
Putin has aggravated the tough (now calmed) Wild West situation he inherited from his mentor Yeltsin, but in new ways. Had he gracefully stood down in 2012 he might have been regarded as Russia’s most successful leader ever, overseeing (thanks to oil and gas) a massive rise in affluence during his reign. Instead, he will infamously go down in history as the man who propelled centralised state control over the majority of economic riches, as well as the media and the opposition. His crushing of any political interference from the oligarchs, appointing old friends and colleagues he could trust, not to mention his ‘castling’ with Medvedev, destroyed his credibility for ever. The country suffers a massive flight of capital by those that profited from the sell-offs of the 90s. Judah describes how it is now run by a network of cronies inclined towards patronage, official hooliganism, gangsterism, criminality and corruption, with the noted presence of leather-coated siloviks or apparatchiks from St Petersburg (per Putin’s own origins) in strong positions. The vertical system is inevitably creaky, as it was under communism. The critical gas and oil industry is starting to lag for lack of investment or the type of impetus once provided by Putin’s nemesis during the 90s, Khodorkovsky (once jailed, now exiled).
The book is a lesson on how not to run or develop an organisation, let alone a state. Russia claims to be a ‘managed’ democracy. In reality, according to Judah, the omnipresent United Russia party is ‘plastic’ and has no say. The country, bereft of strong institutions, is furthermore subjected to ‘manual control’ by its leader so as to avoid any chaos stemming from the process of democratisation. Merit has been replaced by loyalty in a vertical structure dictated to by a resented Kremlin. In the rest of the country, Moscow shares this resentment.
There are positive surprises, despite all this. These include the dramatic rise of the Orthodox Church, NGOs and free internet. But Judah doesn’t always have a lot to say for the opposition such as it exists. Navalny comes across as suspect although savvy (his labelling of United Russia as the party of Crooks and Thieves has stuck extremely well). Some other leaders appear deliberately and cynically tolerated in order to make United Russia appear a better option. Not that any of this matters; election rigging appears rife, and although regional governors are once again elected, the Kremlin has retained an ominous oversight. Although the author dismisses Medvedev as a lackey, he doesn’t actually criticise him to any great extent, and even attributes to him several positive points. I found the chapter on him in the middle of the book particularly interesting.
Judah doesn’t offer much hope. Unless Putin is ousted by his own circle (any scenario similar to the lead-up to Tsar Nicholas II’s demise seems unlikely), he seems destined to stay in power until 2018, if not 2024, and surely the situation he has created seems unalterable by peaceful means any time soon. It’s all very sad.
My criticisms of the book lie in its lack of balance, avoiding trying to better understand the motivation behind Putin’s moves, and lack of mention at all of Russia’s known talents in science and industry and explaining why they have not had more effect. But it is a great read and highly recommended all the same.

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