Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russi Paperback – Illustrated, 21 April 2009

元KGBで元エリツィンの側近で元大統領のぷーちんはおそるべし男です。これが大国ロシアの独裁者？？リーダー？？なぜ国民に人気があるのか、日本にはこういう人がいないのか？？すかれないのか？？呼んだあとに色々なことを考えました。

A thought-provoking and terrifying look into the extraordinary means the Putin regime utilizes to silence dissenters present in the public sphere.

Bought the book to get a better sense of current events. I was a Russian history major in college and I would classify this book as poorly organized and filled with conjecture/opinion. The book jumps all over. Links people and events without real ties and very little facts. Basically a lazy magazine writer who wanted to write about the people he met and the stories they told him under the umbrella of "exposing Putin's Russia." Someone who had better sources or more ability to capture the social forces in Russia would do a lot with this rich topic. This was painful to get through and did little to provide more than gossip. I also though the qualifying of "American mistakes" was a funny apologetic way of injecting "I don't l George Bush" into a story that had nothing to do with American politics.

not a neutral assessment of this very effective Russian leader

So-so.