5 ms·
I read an incredibly thorough book about Putin a year or so ago, and what stuck with me is how political his career in the KGB was. In those final years of the
by mekkkkkk 5y ago
I read an incredibly thorough book about Putin a year or so ago, and what stuck with me is how political his career in the KGB was. In those final years of the USSR, everything was in shambles, and any position of power became so through-and-through political. That makes his rise so interesting and frightening. He has been forged in a dark web of covert slush funds, power projection and kompramat. He was obviously very good at that game, and it continues today.
EDIT: The book was "Putin's People" by Catherine Belton
- agumonkey 5y agothere's also long interviews from 2017~ on PBS Frontline IIRC, a series called "Putin files" Julia Ioffe, Masha Gessen It's partial but has a lot of detail On the other side there are the Russian friendly views such as Mearsheimer or even Stone. It's difficult to weigh what is true (even though I'm biased anti aggressor in this case)
- dralley 5y agoI watched both of those interviews yesterday, they are excellent.
- agumonkey 5y agoIt lacks the first hand soviet agent data that the ft article has, which more important in my view. Still better than nothing.
- yucky 5y ago>Russian friendly views such as Mearsheimer I don't know that I would refer to Professor Mearsheimer's view as pro-Russian, he has plenty of criticism of Putin and the Russian political system in general. But the fact that he has been railing on the likely consequences of our approach for dealing with the Russia/Ukraine situation for years, and been proved right, should make his writing and interviews required for anybody seeking to better understand who we got here.
- agumonkey 5y agoThat's why I said russian friendly.. it's a subtle topic.
- jacquesm 5y agoMearsheimer has been trotted out by so many people that likely never heard of him three weeks ago that it's getting a bit tiring.
- yucky 5y agoThat tends to happen when someone turns out to have accurately predicted the future.
- jacquesm 5y agoNo, it's just that he happens to allow you and others to do what you like about it: trumpet all over that 'the West' caused Russia's invasion into Ukraine. When in fact if you follow that line of thought it was Hitlers mom who caused World War II. The only person responsible for the invasion into Ukraine is Putin, it was entirely optional, no matter who predicted that it would happen. Also: there is a substantial number of HN accounts in recent times whose only purpose seems to be to plant Russian talking points and I wonder if those are mostly by useful idiots or by hostile parties, so be careful whose water you carry. I'm sure you will find a way to tie each and every man, woman and child murdered by Russian soldiers to 'the West' but it isn't very believable, even if you have to find the need to quote a professor (your appeal to authority was noted).
- yucky 5y agoIt doesn't take much imagination to think what the US would do if China began to make a "special pact" with Mexico. The US would very aggressively put that to an end, one way or another. This is essentially the same. Of course if we continue to coax the expansion of NATO (ie the international arm of the US military) onto the Russian border it will cause problems. Why would we ever pretend otherwise?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- stjohnswarts 5y agoSeems to me like he has lost that and becoming just an angry old man playing with people's lives because he can.
- khazhoux 5y agoOr, he amassed all the power, and is now wielding it :-\