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Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? Paperback – September 22, 2015

4.4 out of 5 stars 352

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The raging question in the world today is who is the real Vladimir Putin and what are his intentions. Karen Dawisha’s brilliant Putin’s Kleptocracy provides an answer, describing how Putin got to power, the cabal he brought with him, the billions they have looted, and his plan to restore the Greater Russia.

Russian scholar Dawisha describes and exposes the origins of Putin’s kleptocratic regime. She presents extensive new evidence about the Putin circle’s use of public positions for personal gain even before Putin became president in 2000. She documents the establishment of Bank Rossiya, now sanctioned by the US; the rise of the Ozero cooperative, founded by Putin and others who are now subject to visa bans and asset freezes; the links between Putin, Petromed, and “Putin’s Palace” near Sochi; and the role of security officials from Putin’s KGB days in Leningrad and Dresden, many of whom have maintained their contacts with Russian organized crime.

Putin’s Kleptocracy is the result of years of research into the KGB and the various Russian crime syndicates. Dawisha’s sources include Stasi archives; Russian insiders; investigative journalists in the US, Britain, Germany, Finland, France, and Italy; and Western officials who served in Moscow. Russian journalists wrote part of this story when the Russian media was still free. “Many of them died for this story, and their work has largely been scrubbed from the Internet, and even from Russian libraries,” Dawisha says. “But some of that work remains.”

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] copiously researched account . . . the most persuasive account we have of corruption in contemporary Russia. Dawisha won’t be getting a Russian visa anytime soon. Her indictment—event if it wouldn’t stand up in a court of law—hits Putin where it really hurts.” ― New York Times Book Review

“[An] unblinking scholarly exposé.” ―
Forbes

“An important and valuable work” ―
The Wall Street Journal

“[Dawisha] makes extensive use of the work of others, both fellow political scientists as well as journalists working across the US and Europe. . . . the resulting work has a certain admirable relentlessness. For by tying all of these disparate investigations together so thoroughly, so pedantically, and with so many extended footnotes—and by tracking down Western copies of documents that vanished from Russia long ago—the extent of what has always been a murky story suddenly becomes more clear. . . . [Dawisha] turns a relentless focus on the financial story of Putin’s rise to power: page after page contains the gritty details of criminal operation after criminal operation, including names, dates, and figures. Many of these details had never been put together before.” -- Anne Applebaum ―
New York Review of Books

“A who’s who of the people on the sanctions lists drawn up by America and the EU. It is also a guide to the crony capitalism that grew out of the nexus of Mr. Putin’s plutocratic interests, his shady past and authoritarian rule.” ―
The Economist

Putin’s Kleptocracy should be on the reading list of anyone who wishes to understand the true nature of Putin’s regime, which, as Dawisha correctly states, is ‘committed to a life of looting without parallel.’” ― Washington Free Beacon

“A rich and exhaustive account of Putin and his regime . . . Among Dawisha’s many contributions to our understanding of post-Soviet politics, this book may be the most significant, as the author combines an analysis of such politics and a biography of Russian president Vladimir Putin in unrivaled detail. . . . The notes in this volume represent one of the finest and most imaginative uses of published source materials that this reviewer has ever seen in a book on post-Soviet politics.” ―
Library Journal (starred review)

“A damning account of Vladimir Putin's rise to power and of the vast dimensions of the corruption—political and economic—that both reigns and rots in Russia. . . . Dawisha's research is extremely impressive. . . . The light of Dawisha's research penetrates a deep moral darkness, revealing something ugly—and dangerous.” ―
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A devastating dossier on what history may recognize as a state system that served mainly as a cover for the criminal looting and victimization of the people whose self-sacrificing patriotism it so cynically and shamelessly manipulated.” ―
The Washington Times

“[An] important new book . . . [Dawisha] has compiled an extraordinary dossier of malfeasance and political corruption on an epic scale. . . . Dawisha is the first Western author to have pieced together all the relevant material . . . Above all, she charts the extraordinary accumulation of wealth and power by Putin’s associates and friends over a period of two decades. . . . Dawisha has done us all a service in her meticulous account . . .
Putin’s Kleptocracy is a courageous and scrupulously judicious investigation into the sinews of wealth and power in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.” -- Richard Sakwa ― The Times Literary Supplement

“A long-time Russia scholar . . . Dawisha spent almost eight years researching her book. . . . In studying high-level corruption under the Putin regime, Dawisha does a thorough job of analysing the relevant material in the historical archives and court records, and collating reports in the Russian and western press. The power of her argument is amplified by the coolness of her prose.” ―
Financial Times

About the Author

Karen Dawisha is the Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and the director of the University’s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. She has written five previous books, eight edited volumes, and numerous journal articles, and continues to do research and teaching in the areas of post-communist transitions and Russian politics.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1476795207
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (September 22, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781476795201
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1476795201
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.38 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 352

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
352 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2015
This book is certainly topical given the events from 2014. Putin's Kleptocracy is essentially an account of Putin's political career and how he manoeuvred his way to the top and how he has created a circle of loyal oligarchs in a modern day corporatist political economy. The author carefully details Putin's associations through time from his early days in East Germany through to the modern projects like the Sochi Olympics and gives the reader a sense of the continuous evolution of Russian political economy after Yeltsin.

The book gives the reader a very strong impression that there has been little evolution in the character of Putin and that the kleptocracy that Russia has become in the post Soviet era could be seen from his earliest days. I was for the most part unaware of the various public domain scandals that Putin was involved in but the author familiarizes the reader with all of the public issues Putin has faced and how he dealt with them. The author begins with his role in East Germany as part of the KGB, the author speculates that familiarity with moving money around offshore was learned during these years though the details of this period are the least documented. The author discusses how some of the slush funds conceptualized by KGB as an organization to protect its own as the Soviet Union was disintegrated were structured. The author moves into the days in the mayors office in St Petersburg during the food shortages. Putin effectively allowed for large scale theft by allowing export licences to be taken up by friends for massively subsidized natural resources like oil in exchange for the proceeds to be used for food to be imported back for the people of the city. The imports never came and the penalties under the export licenses were light basically allowing gifts of huge sums of money to close affiliates. These export licenses and the scandal around them continues to be in people's memories. The author moves on to the days in Moscow and how Putin became close to Yeltsin's inner circle and the family of oligarchs that supported him. The author goes into contentious territory by speculating that the Chechen bombings were orchestrated by the State to encourage the population to vote for a strongman leader. The author discusses some of the electoral fraud that occurred during Putin's first election and how voter numbers and relative turnout don't add up. The author discusses how in the early years Putin consolidated his power among the oligarchs using a highly legalist and police state like regime. The author also discusses how Putin took in large donations to fund the infamous Putin's Palace which is speculated to have cost over a billion US. The author makes some very well thought out examples to show obvious corruption (as thought it is not obvious but the examples are very concretely convincing). As an example the author details how Gazprom uses many many offshore tax shelters. Now obviously private sector companies try to be as tax efficient as possible but a state owned enterprise would never engage in such activity as its owner is the state. Hence the offshore vehicles are purely for members of the state and the board to shelter themselves from the state itself.

Putin's Kleptocracy gives a detailed history of Putin and his associations through time starting with the beginning of his career in East Germany. At times the information can get you bogged down as it is impossible to keep track of all the names but in aggregate the continuity of the character of Putin comes through. The reader gets the sense that Putin has been looking to shape Russia into the country it is today from the beginning, in particular a corporatist state in which the state supports elite corporate profit in return for the corporate sector supporting the state when needed. The income inequality in Russia is astounding with 110 people apparently owning 35% of national output. The scale is unprecedented. Given the shock to oil in 2014 it will be fascinating to see how the situation in Russia plays out. Putin's Kleptocracy is highly readable and very illuminating for the unfamiliar.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2015
Brilliant research put into a very informative no-holds-barred well written book.

I am British and was recommended to read this book by Edward Lucas who greatly aided Mrs. Dawisha in getting the book published.

Apart from anything else, I was intrigued to read a book which British publishers of fame had refused to publish for fear of legal reprisals. What a sad nation of so-called free speech the UK has become. So, I had a copy sent over form the USA !

I spent a number of years working in former Iron Curtain countries (Romania and Ukraine) and visiting a number of others (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Russia) so not surprisingly I have more than a passing interest in what goes on there.

From the start I have viewed Putin as pure evil and this book more than supports my opinion. I have read quite a few other quality books about Putin (such as Masha Gessen's "The Man Without a Face"), and many, many media reports, but Dawisha's book is by far and away the most detailed in the dissection of Putin and what's happened in Russia during his Tsarist styled reign and the years leading up to it.

Regardless, I'm not sure even yet as to how the heck Putin got to where he is from, as it were, where he was. Dawisha states on the inside of the cover: "Jobless to president in three and a half years", but I don't think she explains clearly how that could have been. I am still left wondering whether Putin is out there as his own man, or whether he is out there with shadowy figures in the Kremlin background who could, if they so chose, remove him. In the second paragraph of chapter four: "Why was Putin able to secure a series of key positions in Moscow beginning in 1996 ? Hill and Gaddy provide the answer: "The people who brought Vladimir Putin from St. Petersburg to Moscow never cared about his credentials as a specialist in developing business. For them he was an expert in controlling business". So, I ask, who are "the people" ??

Did I miss something in the book which answers this question ?

This is a must read book for anyone who wants to know what is happening today in Russia and what has happened over the past several decades. I can think of many politicians and business people who would learn a few (hard) truths from Dawisha's excellent writing.

Thank you Karen Dawisha for a greatly informative read. More please !
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Top reviews from other countries

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Daniel
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book regardless of existing background
Reviewed in Canada on January 17, 2021
Fantastic book. As someone with a surface level understanding of Russia it seemed a little intimidating at first... however getting the broad strokes is easy enough. Think people going in with a small amount of knowledge on Russia to more experienced will both enjoy it as long as you’ve got some personal interest/curiosity.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars A Russia nunca deixou de ter um Czar, e Putin é o mais poderoso de toda sua historia.
Reviewed in Brazil on March 23, 2017
A Russia em toda sua historia nunca deixou de ser uma autocracia. Apesar do ultimo Romanov ter morrido na revolução de Lenin, ela nunca deixou de ter um Czar. Stalin foi um dos piores da historia, até Putin tomar o poder.
Neste livro, que é uma investigação minuciosa do funcionamento do poder na Russia e como Putin tem mais poder do que qualquer outro governante em toda sua historia, é assustador que até hoje nenhum dos países democraticos, principalmente os EUA, nada tenham feito sobre isso, dado o risco imenso que ele significa para os países livres.
Putin é um genia do crime, jamais se arriscaria perigosamente sem ter uma carta na manga. Ele interferiu nas eleições americanas por que tem Donal Trump na mão. E Trump sabe que se as coisas esquentarem todos saberão que um traidor da patria esta na Casa Branca.
Petrolhead
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book. It's shocking.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2016
This is an absolutely devastating account of the corruption of Vladimir Putin. It is written in rather an academic style, so it sometimes lacks the "pace of a thriller" that you might get in some other books about Russia. But no matter. This is the real deal. If you want a forensic analysis of how Putin got from being a KGB man in East Germany to being a deputy mayor in St Petersburg (I never understood what that entails -now i do) and then finally onto the presidency, read this book. The stuff I read here was a mix of things I'd never heard of, things I'd heard of and forgotten, and things I heard rumoured but never believed. It's an invaluable archive of wrongdoing. It doesn't go deep into the Yukos affair, nor cover much of Putin's policies as president. But it makes it crystal clear that the Kremlin is a nest of gangsters.

I found this book to be like an electric shock. It totally awakened my senses and now whenever Russia is in the news, I am aware that the people calling the shots (and it usually is shots, or bombs, these days) rose to power on lies that might make Donald Trump blush. Of course you might say, ah, I knew all that already. Maybe you did. But it's easy to forget. This stuff is not in the news because it's all treated like ancient history. It's certainly not in Russia's interest to revive any memories. And every other country treats Russia with respect, if not deference. The media tell you what is going on today, and they don't have time, patience or motivation to keep reminding you of the nature of the Russian mafia state. It's horrifying.
12 people found this helpful
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Je refuse la censure sur le contenu même des livres achetés et commentés
5.0 out of 5 stars Somme exceptionnellement documenté sur POUTINE et son clan que tout citoyen du monde doit avoir dans sa bibliothèque
Reviewed in France on June 29, 2016
Ce livre, avec celui d'Anna POLITKOVSKAIA qui a un chapitre sur la corruption dans l'Oural, est le meilleur parmi la dizaine d'ouvrages sur POUTINE et GAZPROM que j'ai lu. Compte tenu de sa densité, il m'a fallu plusieurs jours pour le lire en prenant des notes sur les pages de garde.

Les points clés sont les suivants :
- page 10 : POUTINE a 20 résidences, 58 avions, 4 yachts.
- page 11 : IKEA est piégé.
- page 14 : la Russie est un état-mafia.
- page 15 : aveuglement d'OBAMA, MERKEL, SARKOZY, HOLLANDE de 2008 à 2014.
- page 22 : assassinat de KLEBNIKOV de Forbes.
- page 25 : le KGB est incontournable.
- page 41 : POUTINE battait sa femme à Dresde.
- page 49 : POUTINE trafiquait avec la Fraction Armée Rouge.
- page 67 : POUTINE "le totalitarisme est inhérent à la mentalité de notre peuple".
- page 67 et page 285 : lien avec le crime organisé TAMBOV et MALYSHEV actionnaire de la banque Rossiya et de la coopérative Ozero.
- page 69 : un des 4 plus grands réseaux du crime organisé du monde.
- page 125 : assassinat de SAL'YE.
- page 132 : Baltik-Escort de ZOLOTOV est l'interlocuteur du crime organisé, SPAG étant un organisme de blanchiment commun.
- page 138 : SCHROEDER bloque l'enquête sur SPAG dès qu'il devient chancelier mais la police fait fuiter le dossier.
- page 141 : Nord Stream est dirigé par un ex-STASI.
- page 144 : les services russes contrôlent le crime organisé.
- page 178 et 197 : POUTINE tenait SOBCKAK dès 1990, SOBCHAK est assassiné en 2000 avant de témoigner.
- page 187 : histoire de LITVINENKO ancien du service Action du KGB.
- page 192 : la 1ère guerre de Tchétchénie était déjà électorale.
- page 200 : les services français ont enregistré la rencontre BESAYEV-VOLOSHIN pour organiser la 2e guerre électorale de Tchétchénie.
- page 201 : bombardement de soldats russes au Dagestan.
- page 210 : 2e guerre de Tchétchénie, 50% de réfugiés en 2 mois.
- page 212-215 : bombe de Ryazan et FSB.
- page 249 : élections de 2000 tr'uquées.
- page 259 : les attentats sont liés au FSB selon NTV.
- page 287 : Koursk.
- page 283 : disparition de 20 Mds $ d'actions de GAZPROM.
- page 291 : assassinat de PATARKATSISHVILI qui avait sorti POUTINE du chômage.
- page 300 : organigramme du racket pour le Versailles de POUTINE sur la mer Noire.
- page 309 : ZOLOTOV à MUROV "Il y en a trop à tuer même pour nous."
- page 316 : corruption 300 Mds/an soit le budget de la Russie.
- page 318 : 111 000 entrepreneurs en prison dans le cadre de la spoliation.
- page 327 : captation d'Hermitage de Bill BROWDER.
- page 329 : la corruption à GAZPROM 40 Mds $ équivaut aux profits 44,7 Mds $.

Cette énumération est incomplète et il faut lire le livre toutes affaires cessantes... si on lit l'anglais.

La somme de Karen DAWISHA est une véritable encyclopédie.

La présentation en couverture ignore l'aspect létal du système très présent tout au long de l'ouvrage.
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Poetry lover
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard look
Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2016
Chilling, superbly researched account of Russian power elites' inner workings. The researcher painstakingly dots all the "i's" and crosses all the "t's". If you don't want to know what is really going on in Russia, don't read it.
4 people found this helpful
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