Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This book is about Vladimir Putin—but not, as he is normally viewed in the West, as seen through rose-colored glasses.

Why is it difficult to sustain a rosy point of view when you are faced with reality in Russia? Because Putin, a product of the country’s murkiest intelligence service, has failed to transcend his origins and stop acting like a KGB officer. He is still busy sorting out his freedom-loving fellow citizens; he persists in crushing liberty, just as he did earlier in his career.

This book is also about the fact that not everyone in Russia is prepared to put up with Putin’s kind of government. We no longer want to be under anyone’s thumb, even if that is what best suits the West. We demand our right to freedom.

But this book is not an examination of Putin’s policies. I am not a political analyst. I am just one person among many, a face in the crowd, like so many in Moscow, Chechnya, Saint Petersburg, and other places. These are my immediate reactions, jotted down in the margins of life as it is lived in Russia today. It is too soon to stand back, as you must if you want dispassionate analysis. I live in the present, noting what I see and what I hear.