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Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin Paperback – Illustrated, March 25, 2014

by Ben Judah (Author)

4.4 202 ratings

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A lively, inside account of Putin’s years of rule and the impending crisis that threatens his tsar-like regime

“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.”—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

“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

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

March 25, 2014
Dimensions

9.32 x 5.59 x 1.17 inches
ISBN-10

0300205228
ISBN-13

978-0300205220
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About the Author

Ben Judah is currently a visiting fellow at the European Stability Initiative. His work has been featured in the Financial Times, the Economist, Prospect, Standpoint, and Foreign Policy.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Illustrated edition (March 25, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300205228
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300205220
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.32 x 5.59 x 1.17 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,588,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,599 in International Economics (Books)
- #3,768 in Russian History (Books)

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4.4 202 ratings

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Carl from Chicago

An Excellent Overview of Modern Russia

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2013

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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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Michael N. Krastman

For anyone who thought Russia is still a superpower, read on. Fragile Empire describes it well.

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2013

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Another very well researched book on Russia, much like Ledeneva's 'Can Russia Modernise?' It is well written, but given Judah's journalistic background that should probably come as no surprise. I chose this book as part of a process of education and it has certainly done that. It centres around the effects that Putin's choice of governance mechanisms have had on Russian society's advancement and regression. It clearly demonstrates that Moscow is not Russia, and also contrasts the obscene wealth and privilege disparities that have arisen as a result of Putin's use of informal governance and 'trusted' people; an old Russian tradition. I found it to present its information in a balanced manner and is not a diatribe against Putin. As in life most things are not black and white. Some of the portraits he draws are shocking and make for dismal reading. It left me feeling as an ordinary Russian might; frustrated at what seems like a tunnel with little light at the end. One can only hope that the next generation will provide better governance.

3 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

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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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Je refuse la censure sur le contenu même des livres achetés et commentés

La Russie de POUTINE vue par des Russes interviewés par BEN JUDAH : incontournable, exceptionnel et densément documenté

Reviewed in France on July 8, 2016

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Livre d'interviews de très nombreux russes des élites au Transsibérien et à Vladivostok, avec une introduction coup de poing page 1 sur l'assassinat à Kushchevskaya d'une famille entière d'agriculteurs (hommes, femmes, enfants) qui refusait de payer le racket d'un potentat local !

Le scoop des scoop en page 39 est le témoignage de l'ancien 1er premier ministre de POUTINE sur un banquet en 1999 du KGB/FSB à la Lubyanka : "... Putin proposed a toast with "great enthusiasm", before solemny declaring : "Dear comrades, I would like to announce you that the group of FSB agents that you sent to work undercover in the government has accomplished the first part of its mission."..."

Page 22, POUTINE sait se faire des amis, leur est loyal, est bon tacticien, page 121, POUTINE apparaît leader à l'école, page 114 il règne par la terreur, page 226 il est classé inconscient du danger à son embauche au FSB...

Avec un complément crucial page 263 : pour son pétrole, dont la production va baisser de 20% de 2010 à 2020, POUTINE a besoin de la technique de l'Occident.

Avec un autre complément crucial page 257 : POUTINE parie sur l'industrie de l'armement pour se ré-ancrer dans le peuple... façon HITLER.

Les autres points-clés du livre, nombreux, sont les suivants :
- page 3 : la Russie a le niveau de la Papouasie, du Kenya, de l'Ouganda et du Sri Lanka.
- page 24 : attaque éclair des médias.
- page 27 : POUTINE purge 1/3 du KGB pour la Famille (d'ELTSINE).
- page 32 : mort des enquêteurs sur les attentats du FSB.
- page 41 : prise de contrôle des télés de GUSINSKY et de BEREZOVSKY.
- page 52 : apologie du viol par POUTINE.
- page 76 : POUTINE fait lire par le procureur à son cabinet ministériel l'acte d'accusation de KHODORKOVSKY.
- page 180 : incurie complète de la gestion des incendies de forêts.
- page 182 : 80% des ordres aux régions ne sont pas exécutés.
- page 184-185 : la Russie est un océan d'inefficacité selon le discours de la base.
- page 200 : un pianiste fils de chef de parti a les doigts coupés et envoyés par la poste.
- page 210 : listes des rapports de NEMTSOV et MILOV, en particulier sur POUTINE et la corruption.
- page 221 : montants des pots de vin pour entrer en crêche, à l'école, à l'université.
- page 222 : blog de NAVALNY.
- page 226 : la Russie se perçoit comme une colonie de Moscou.
- page 232-233 : élections POTEMKINE avec 99,5% de votes favorables dans un hôpital psychiatrique.
- page 230 : POUTINE hué à une compétition d'arts martiaux.
- page 254 : avec la corruption, seuls les enfants de l'élite ont droit à une éducation.
- page 261 : salaires de l'armée et de la police x2.
- page 262 : financement des pensions par la dette !
- page 270 : POUTINE et KADYROV ont une relation purement féodale.
- page 273 : 30 Mds $ pour 30 millions de nord-caucasiens.
- page 275 : la Russie paye tribut au Nord Caucase !
- page 275 : 10 000 manifestants à Kaliningrad.
- page 283 : charnier de 30 jeunes filles à Nizhny Tagil, façon Ciudad-Juarez.
- page 284 : 500 000 morts liés à l'alcool/an.
- page 285 : "Russie Unie parti de voleurs" est le discours de base.
- page 294 : en Sibérie la Russie n'est pas souveraine économiquement.
- page 297 : effondrement de l'éducation.
- page 314 : à Vladivostok 20 Mds $ d'incurie.
- page 318 : 72% des Russes pensent à tuer les officiels corrompus.

Ce livre est une mine d'informations de terrain, du très grand journalisme.

One person found this helpful

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Victoria

Reviewed in Germany on May 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

A brilliantly written and researched book! Amazingly accurate and exceptionally informative. A must-read for everyone who is interested in current Russian politics, and who cares what will become of the country.

One person found this helpful

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

MR A R BUTTS

Russia as seen through one of those washed-out apocalyptic colour-grading effects.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 22, 2014

Verified Purchase

I met Ben on his travels writing this book and it's a great read and it excels at combining picaresque travel anecdotes of Gogolian absurd proportions with his analysis of the dysfunctional political landscape. It's well written and correctly slams Mr. Putin for wasting what should be the richest country on the planet (stacks of space, resources, small highly educated population, etc) and turning it more and more into a classic resource curse country. This isn't news. Chances are if you're reading this review you know that already.

Ben's writing revels in the absurdity to be found in Russia and he has a love of impressionistic language to describe what he has seen (as well as what he hasn't seen - always a dangerous literary choice as he is too young to have been there for the events of the nineties). This all makes it a rollicking read, but weakens its authority, and puts the book firmly in the polemic side of writing. But almost any writing on Russia I feel is to a greater or less extent not balanced. It's not the fault of the authors really, perhaps it's just that Russia is (in)famously a land of contradictions and the desire for book editors to want to shoehorn in certain narratives.

That said, this is well researched and has great travel writing, specifically his account of his journeys to the far east, arriving in places such as Birobidizhan and other provinces - they are wonderfully apocalyptic. The Russia that Ben finds is an extreme one. Certainly one wonders while reading the crazy characters that leap off the pages of this book how the hell this place managed to do anything, let alone establish the USSR. Perhaps I'm misreading his point, but if we take his arguments to the limit as his book seems to want to go, then Russia is a failure because considering all the natural wealth the country has it would be hard to screw it up. Shostakovich, Tolstoy, Gagarin etc is thus the lowest it could have gotten, and had another culture settled the lands of the Volga, who knows what grand achievements would have been achieved... I seem to remember my uncle saying something similar about the United States being a similarly wasted potential. Perhaps I'm being romantic, but I'm more inclined to the view that Russia is not a wasted potential. Russia will be back and it is the very Gogolian absurdity that Ben has a downer on and with which he paints such memorable images that is the same quality that allows Russia to exhibit such extraordinary non-linear behaviour, swinging from peasants to a world force in a few decades and now heading to resource curse dystopia. Don't write the Russians off in other words. Saying that, it's well worth the read.

4 people found this helpful

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

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