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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 947.086 EAN: 9781400066858 Edition: 1 ISBN: 1400066859 Label: Random House Manufacturer: Random House Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 224 Publication Date: June 24, 2008 Publisher: Random House Release Date: June 24, 2008 Studio: Random House Editorial Review: Product Description: The new Russia is marching in an alarming direction. Emboldened by escalating oil wealth and newfound prominence as a world power, Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, has veered back toward the authoritarian roots planted in Imperial/Czarist times and firmly established during the Soviet era. Though Russia has a new president, Dmitri Medvedev, Putin remains in control, rendering the democratic reforms of the post-Soviet order irrelevant. Now, in Putin’s Labyrinth, acclaimed journalist Steve LeVine, who lived in and reported from the former Soviet Union for more than a decade, provides a penetrating account of modern Russia under the repressive rule of an all-powerful autocrat. LeVine portrays the growth of a “culture of death”–from targeted assassinations of the state’s enemies to the Kremlin’s indifference when innocent hostages are slaughtered. Drawing on new interviews with eyewitnesses and the families of victims, LeVine documents the bloodshed that has stained Putin’s two terms as president. Among the incidents chronicled in these pages: The 2002 terrorist takeover of a crowded Moscow theater–which led to the government gassing the building, and the deaths of more than a hundred terrified hostages–seen here from new angles, through the riveting words of those who survived; and the murder of courageous investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, shot in the elevator of her apartment building on Putin’s birthday, purportedly as a malicious “gift” for the president from supporters. Finally, a shocking story that made international headlines–the 2006 death of defector Alexander Litvinenko in London–is dramatized as never before. LeVine traces the steps of this KGB-spy-turned-dissident on his way to being poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive isotope. And in doing so, LeVine is granted a rare series of interviews with a KGB defector who was nearly killed in strangely similar circumstances fifty years earlier. Through LeVine’s exhaustive research, we come to know the victims as real people, not just names in brief news accounts of how they died. Putin’s Labyrinth is more than an immensely readable exposé. It is highly personal, with the flavor of a memoir. It is a thoughtful book that examines the perplexing question of how Russians manage to negotiate their way around the ever-present danger of violence. It calculates the emotional toll that this lethal maze is exacting on ordinary people, even as they enjoy a dramatically heightened standard of living. Most ominously, it assesses the reopening of hostilities with the West, and the forces that are driving this major new confrontation. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Putin's LabyrinthFor someone with little or no exposure to recent sources on Putin's Russia, this is an excellent starting point for understanding unfolding events inside the Russian Federation. The photographs of the "players" are a nice "addition" normally missing from most recent current events books--a definite plus. On the downside, although it provides a good general overview of current developments in Russia, it at times appears to rely too much on secondary sources, such the 2007 book "Blowing ... Read More Rating:  - "RUSSIA'S...LABYRINTH""PUTIN'S LABYRINTH", by Steve LE Vine is an informative and short, but vivid portrayal of today's Russia and it's indisputable leader, Mr. Vladimir Putin. However, this book could just as easily have been entitled: "Stalin's Labyrinth," "Ivan's Labyrinth," or for that matter, "The Czar's Labyrinth." The point being that..."Mr. Putin" seems to be doing exactly what most of Russia's leaders have done throughout the past centuries. The difference perhaps, Mr. Putin seems to be more of a "Realpolitikist" ... Read More Rating:  - Agree or Disagree with it, a Book To ReadSteve LeVine's compelling and engagingly horrified study of the 'dark heart of the new Russia' stands head and shoulders above the spate of books triggered by the Litvinenko murder because it is not about one killing so much as 'a chronicle of violence in modern-day Russia, a place that seems unwilling or unable to escape its horrific past.' (p. xxii) It is difficult in general terms to resist LeVine's claim that 'Putin's rule protects those who are inside the system or at least accept it. Outsiders cannot ... Read More Rating:  - Less Than a LabyrinthThis is Russology "light". Everything that is substantive content could have been written in 25 pages or less. In fact, read the summary inside the jacket and you've got the whole book. LeVine has researched the deaths of two Russians - Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya. He indeed presents convincing evidence that both were murdered - something any reader could get from newspapers. However, when LeVine tries to assign blame, he can only repeat in every chapter that Vladimir Putin, if he did not ... Read More Rating:  - Doesn't delve deep enoughThis is a timely book, coming so soon after the Russian intervention in Georgia, and covers an interesting and important subject. The author states his thesis at the outset: that because of its history, Russia is a country and Russians a people more tolerant of brutal behavior by the government than others and that the current Putin regime is ruthless in crushing dissent and enforcing its one-party rule of the country. Unfortunately what follows is remarkably thin. We go over several well-known cases -- ... Read More |
