Philip Short’s meticulous new biography forces us to look at Vladimir Putin’s most appalling acts from a Russian perspective
n his speech on the night of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, which Philip Short describes as “pulsating with anger and resentment” at 30 years of Russian humiliation, Putin seethed: “They deceived us… they duped us like a con artist… the whole so-called western bloc, formed by the United States in its own image is… an empire of lies.
For all his recent whitewashing of Stalinism and Soviet history, in the early 1990s Putin understood the 1917 revolution had taken the country to an economic and political dead end. In his words, “the only thing they had to keep the country within common borders was barbed wire. And as soon as this barbed wire was removed, the country fell apart.
Who remembers that Putin asked the BBC’s Bridget Kendall to moderate the first of his annual phone-ins to speak to the nation and the world? Short is too astute to indulge in easy post-event speculation about different outcomes. Instead, he charts the inexorable march away from the genuine more liberal aspirations of Putin’s early days to the harsh autocratic isolated tsar of recent years, from a Russia culturally and mentally in Putin’s words “an inalienable part of Europe” to the present rupture, which will surely separate it for at least a generation.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Putin: His Life and Times review – the collapse that shaped the man who would be tsarPhilip Short’s meticulous new biography forces us to look at Vladimir Putin’s most appalling acts from a Russian perspective
Read more »
Taking on Putin through porn: how Russians are finding out the truth about Ukraine | Jemimah SteinfeldLittle moderation, huge audiences and biddable owners make porn and gambling sites a safe haven from censors, says Jemimah Steinfeld, editor-in-chief of Index on Censorship
Read more »
In defying Vladimir Putin, Sanna Marin has pulled off one of the most 'important moments of Finnish history'Russia's warnings to not join NATO have done little to dampen the resolve of Finland's Prime Minister, Sanna Marin. At just 36, the world's youngest leader has pulled off one of the 'most important moments of Finnish history'.
Read more »
Putin: His Life and Times review – the collapse that shaped the man who would be tsarPhilip Short’s meticulous new biography forces us to look at Vladimir Putin’s most appalling acts from a Russian perspective
Read more »
Mick Jagger: My Life As a Rolling Stone review – the singer would hate this documentaryJagger starts the film telling us how he despises the exact rock mythology this cliche-ridden show indulges in. Worse still, it fails to ask difficult questions about his band’s problematic past
Read more »
Violent protests expected after video shows Ohio police shot fleeing Black man dozens of timesA family lawyer has described police body-worn camera footage of Jayland Walker's shooting as 'brutal,' and said his relatives worried that protests this weekend could turn violent:
Read more »