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Fiona Hill

Clifford G. Gaddy

Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin Hardcover – February 1, 2013

by Fiona Hill (Author), Clifford G. Gaddy (Author)

4.3 86 ratings

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Vladimir Putin has his own idealized view of himself as CEO of “Russia, Inc.” But rather than leading a transparent public corporation, he runs a closed boardroom, not answerable to its stakeholders. Now that his corporation seems to be in crisis, with political protests marking Mr. Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, will the CEO be held accountable for its failings? “For more than a dozen years—the equivalent of three American presidential terms— Vladimir Putin has presided over the largest nation on the planet, the second most powerful nuclear arsenal, and massive natural resources. Yet there is still debate about who he really is. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy have gone a long way in answering that question, starting with the title, which makes a crucial point: even though ‘Mr. Putin’ was, in his upbringing and early career, a prototype of the Soviet man, he’s no longer ‘Comrade Putin.’ His aim is not the restoration of communism. He has made a deal with the capitalists who have thrived in Russia over the past two decades: they support him in the exercise of his political power, and he supports them in amassing their fortunes.”—from the foreword by Strobe Talbott

Print length

390 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Brookings Institution Press
Publication date

February 1, 2013
Dimensions

6 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0815723768
ISBN-13

978-0815723769
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Brookings Institution senior fellows and veteran Russia watchers Hill and Gaddy (The Siberian Curse) bring high-level expertise to bear on the enigma of Vladimir Putin in this illuminating study." -- Publishers Weekly

Review

“Of the many biographies of Vladimir Putin that have appeared in recent years, this one is the most useful, particularly to foreign-policy makers, many of whom must work with a crude or muddled understanding of what makes the Russian leader tick.” -- Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

“There's Mr. Putin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Insightful.”–- Vice President Joseph Biden in Rolling Stone

"[T]his is not just another Putin biography. It is a psychological portrait, a handbook providing sometimes speculative but well-informed answers to the question that has trailed the ex-KGB colonel from St Petersburg ever since he stepped out of the shadows and on to the international stage when he became Russia’s prime minister in 1999: “Who is Mr Putin?” -- Neil Buckley, Financial Times

"Since Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin, Russia-watchers have revisited the perennial puzzle of 'Who is Mr. Putin?'. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, scholars at the Brookings Institution, have produced the most illuminating study so far…" -- Angela Stent, Georgetown University, in Survival

"With so many one-dimensional portraits of the Russian leader, the new offering by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy is a refreshing change of pace.” -- Nikolas Gvosdev, Naval War College, in The National Interest.

“Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin is a readable and informed portrait, painted by two students of Russian history who had, at various times in their careers, a front-row view.” -- David Hearst, The Guardian

“Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy’s new book Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin… is a smart and thoughtful piece of work.” -- Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Studies

“According to this intriguing book, Mr Putin’s success can be ascribed to a series of transformations in which he has posed, first as a he-man, then as a sportsman or military man, with appropriate costumes for each.” -- The Economist

Advance Praise

"In this well-written and genuinely entertaining volume, Hill and Gaddy take us behind the theatrics and the rumors to give us a clear and intriguing view of the man himself. This book is mandatory reading for the president and his advisers." -- Robert Kagan, author of The World America Made

"Hill and Gaddy illuminate not only the recent past but offer a tantalizing glimpse of what the future may hold." -- John McLaughlin, former Deputy Director of U.S. Central Intelligence.

"Theirs is a tough analysis. Not everyone will agree with every aspect. But, if you want to begin to understand Russia today, read this book." -- Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)

"A meticulous psychological portrait of Vladimir Putin and of the highly personalized state he has molded. How Vladimir Putin sees himself is key to how his system works, but, after twelve years of Putin Power, the nation and the people he leads have changed while Putin himself has not. Can Putin reinvent himself? Hill and Gaddy say Russia's new urban middle class wants more than a 'political performance artist."-- Jill Dougherty, former Moscow Bureau Chief, CNN

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brookings Institution Press; First Edition (February 1, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 390 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0815723768
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0815723769
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.55 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,268,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #560 in Political Leadership
- #700 in Russian & Soviet Politics
- #10,295 in Political Leader Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.3 86 ratings

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About the authors

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Fiona Hill
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Fiona Hill is the Robert Bosch Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. From 2017-2019 she was on leave from Brookings and served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe and Russia at the US National Security Council. From 2006-2009, she was the National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. Prior to joining Brookings, she was director of strategic planning at The Eurasia Foundation in Washington, DC, and held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Hill holds an A.M. in Soviet Studies and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University; an M.A. degree in Russian and Modern History from St. Andrews University in Scotland; and has pursued studies at Moscow's Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Clifford G. Gaddy
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Clifford Gaddy is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University. He has received numerous awards for his writing and research on Russia. In 2001 he was selected in the inaugural group of honorees as a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies of the United States, a designation that recognizes extraordinary service to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
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Customer reviews

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Top reviews from the United States

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Pseudo D

behind the villain

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

I got the Brookings version because 300 pages and 100 pages of notes is enough for me. The authors
are Fiona Hill and Cliff Gaddy, and my primary interest is Dr. Hill because she was so impressive at
the impeachment hearings. When the question was raised of whether she was a George Soros globalist,
she defended herself by referring to her coal miner family and her working class accent, which held
her back in the UK but not the States, where most English accents sound smart to us. She defended
my very intelligent Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and said that Dr. Brad Wenstrup was very eloquent
as he decried the coup taking place. What nobody reported is that she denounced the attacks on
President Donald Trump before he even took office. He stated his desire to improve relations with Russia,
and as perhaps America's foremost expert she wanted to help out. This includes the many members of the media who called the election and said that he had no chance of winning, before the election even took place.
The people who say they believe in democracy don't actually accept its results, all the while accusing Mr.
Trump of not accepting the process of democracy. (He famously said, I will accept the results of this
great and historic presidential election...if I win! And jokingly pointed to the crowd). That's why they
will never allow issues like abortion and same-sex marriage to be decided by democratic processes,
but rather by the dictates of the courts. Dr. Hill's Doktorvater was Richard Pipes, the anticommunist
Polish-American historian from Harvard. She also studied at St. Andrews in Scotland.

Hill and Gaddy identify six identities of Mr. Putin, where most of us only know the authoritarian and
ex-KGB agent. The title "Mr. Putin" emphasizes that he was once Comrade Putin and has reinvented
himself. Since this book in 2012 (the second edition was 2015), he has also been a warrior with
the Crimea and Syria. The identities are the statist, the man of history, the survivalist, the outsider,
the free trader, and the case manager (this last one refers to his KGB experience). Putin is often
quoted as saying that the fall of the Soviet Union was a great disaster or tragedy. He said this not
because of any attachment to communism or any other ideology, but the importance of the Russian
state. In the 90s, Yeltsin portrayed Vladimir Zhirinovsky as a nationalist extremist, and Putin is more
nuanced. As a man of history and free trader, he wants to integrate the mistakes and successes of the
USSR into the broader history of the Russian state and the tsars. His notion of capitalism is flawed
from a western perspective because it relies on cronyism and inside deals by the government. The
most interesting identity is the outsider. Putin is from St. Petersburg or Leningrad, the second
largest city after Moscow which gives him a chip on his shoulder. During the crucial Gorbachev
reforms, Putin was with the KGB in Dresden, Germany, so he only observed the changes from
the outside. As of 2012, Hill and Gaddy note that Putin had a populist appeal to the rural areas,
but Moscow had a lot of younger liberal yuppies that don't like him. A key concept to his approach
is the strong belief that the 90s were terrible and cannot be allowed to happen again.

6 people found this helpful

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Tiny

Putin's biography

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Biography written by a Russian expert reveals some scary elements to Putin's career in the KGB before becoming a multi-term Russian President and possibly dictator for life

4 people found this helpful

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Dr Y

The New Old Kremlin

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

Yes the Cold War is over. Yes the Soviet Union is gone, and so are its Communist icons. Or are they? This is about as close a look as you can get into the New Old Kremlin - - - particularly of Putin himself. In historical hindsight, Putin may be viewed as the last of a generation of former Soviets to rule in a non-Soviet Russia. This story still reeks of Party politics, insider cliques, with a pervading presence of Russian history from Nevskii to Stolypin and more. To get that deep, almost personal look at Mr. Putin and the world he reigns over, this book is the best out there.

13 people found this helpful

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Daniel Goldberg

An innovative approach to understanding how Russia is ruled

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

A highly readable work and a very useful addition to the literature on Putin and Putinism. The multiple identities approach was a brilliant innovation, for Putin is a complex character who cannot be examined using a single lens. That said, one could no doubt comb even what little we have in the way of facts about earlier periods of his life to find additional identities - The Loyalist, for example. Of special note is the discussion of Putin having been Absent at the Revolution - having missed out on the events and atmospherics of Perestroyka, and how that made him different from other Russian politicians.

20 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Very informative and thought provoking, but sometimes confusing

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

I've learned a lot about Mr Putin's personaliity and can better understand his public career and political choices. The core argument about Mr. Putin's kaleidoscopic personality is provocative but not always precise. His different identities overlap each other and every single dimension of his experience could explain every episode of Putin's rise to the Kremlin as singled out by the authors. Not perfect, but I would read it again.

6 people found this helpful

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DI

"Time Machine" Book: To Regress or Progress?

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a book one can enjoy reading several times. As a person who eye-witnessed political and economic changes of the 1990s and 2000s, I found the book more about the recent history of the Russian political system than the celebrity president. No doubt, the authors' retrospective analysis helps understand Mr. Putin's views, values, and vision for Russia. And these are not unique to the Russian president alone. Operative in the Kremlin is a "time-machine" book. It is both serious and fun to read. I would recommend the book to Russian students who study history, political science, international affairs, or economics.

10 people found this helpful

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LEO

Great for people interested in modern Russia

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2013

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As someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about Russia, I thought this book was an excellent guide to understanding Putin's style of government. He came out of nowhere to become the president of a country on the verge of collapse and is now extremely well-known throughout the world, but no one has any idea where he came from. This book clearly explained the logic behind his policies, and even made him sympathetic, in spite of the familiar gangster image that Americans are most familiar with. This was well-written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

20 people found this helpful

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Dave89

Good "text book" read

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2014

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Good "text book" read. Fiona goes in to a lot of detail about Mr. Putin's history, and the history of Russia that shapes who he is today, and the persona he projects vs who he really is.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Kindle User Nemo ^_^

大幅なポイント還元で実質2千円チョイ

Reviewed in Japan on May 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

前書きを読めば他の本よりも『はるかに』プーさんの人と成りが正確に検証された事がわかります。彼が流す見せたい虚像をきっちり検証していることが良く理解できます。邦訳が高価でポイント還元も無いのでこちらの版を購入。
平易な英語で読みやすく仕上がっています。

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Volker G.

Helpful Background Information

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

Clear and scientific analysis of the person and persona. I bought the book after enjoying a lecture by Dr. Fiona Hill which impressed me by her clear and 'neutral' view of the subject without the ususal 'political smoke' around such a specific topic. The book is full of helpful background information, well researched and adequately presented. Highly recommended as 'background information' for the critical political observer.

5 people found this helpful

alain de vrieze

great book

Reviewed in Spain on August 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

a must read for ppl wanting to know more about russia

HaggisNeepsTatties

Good supplier.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2015

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