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Louise's Reviews > Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
by
by
In exhaustive detail, with a focus on the financial issues, Catherine Belton documents Putin’s rise to power, how he cemented his control over the country and its economy and then turned to restoring Russia’s territories and settling scores with the West.
Benton shows how Putin’s KGB posting in Dresden was not some backwater middle management job. While the bulk of international intelligence was placed in Berlin, Dresden, below the radar, was the center for stolen and smuggled technology, KGB recruitment (particularly from the waning Stasi) and funding terrorists and others fomenting anti-western sentiment around the world, particularly in the middle east. That Putin performed important services can be documented by his KGB pension which is paid at a “heros” rate.
Belton shows how by taking similar drab sounding positions in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Putin has able to bask in the glow of the perceived reformists Anatoly Sobchek, Mayor of St. Petersburg and Boris Yeltsin who benefited from the very popular move to a market economy. Benton shows how state owned industries sold cheaply at a dizzying pace, but only the elite had cash to get in the game. Fortunes were made.
The circumstances show how Putin, a seemingly behind the scenes functionary, was the a consensus pick of the Yeltsin insiders to take the reins. Once installed, he employed typical KGB moves to stay in power… taking over the press, capitalizing on (and most likely creating) terrorist incidents, changing elected governance and judicial positions to appointed and using or creating governmental levers to promote friends and destroy enemies.
The highlight of the book (for me) is the step by step telling of Putin’s first defining action: the takeover of Yukos and the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. This set the pattern for the kleptocracy that is Russia today. What follows are more deals and incidents that consolidate financial control such that would be owners are merely caretakers who keep their positions as long as Putin is satisfied.
The sections on the Ukraine, the insinuation of Russian money into England and the courtship of Donald Trump were disappointing because they are told through deals and incidents. Some deals are hard to follow and some have vague references to “organized crime” which at this point is not fully distinguishable from the Putin government.
The book ends with glimpses of the public’s dissatisfaction with Putin and the entrenchment of his power.
I recommend this for the first 2/3 which explains the rise to power. The ending, for me, was a blur of names, deals and incidents.
Benton shows how Putin’s KGB posting in Dresden was not some backwater middle management job. While the bulk of international intelligence was placed in Berlin, Dresden, below the radar, was the center for stolen and smuggled technology, KGB recruitment (particularly from the waning Stasi) and funding terrorists and others fomenting anti-western sentiment around the world, particularly in the middle east. That Putin performed important services can be documented by his KGB pension which is paid at a “heros” rate.
Belton shows how by taking similar drab sounding positions in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Putin has able to bask in the glow of the perceived reformists Anatoly Sobchek, Mayor of St. Petersburg and Boris Yeltsin who benefited from the very popular move to a market economy. Benton shows how state owned industries sold cheaply at a dizzying pace, but only the elite had cash to get in the game. Fortunes were made.
The circumstances show how Putin, a seemingly behind the scenes functionary, was the a consensus pick of the Yeltsin insiders to take the reins. Once installed, he employed typical KGB moves to stay in power… taking over the press, capitalizing on (and most likely creating) terrorist incidents, changing elected governance and judicial positions to appointed and using or creating governmental levers to promote friends and destroy enemies.
The highlight of the book (for me) is the step by step telling of Putin’s first defining action: the takeover of Yukos and the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. This set the pattern for the kleptocracy that is Russia today. What follows are more deals and incidents that consolidate financial control such that would be owners are merely caretakers who keep their positions as long as Putin is satisfied.
The sections on the Ukraine, the insinuation of Russian money into England and the courtship of Donald Trump were disappointing because they are told through deals and incidents. Some deals are hard to follow and some have vague references to “organized crime” which at this point is not fully distinguishable from the Putin government.
The book ends with glimpses of the public’s dissatisfaction with Putin and the entrenchment of his power.
I recommend this for the first 2/3 which explains the rise to power. The ending, for me, was a blur of names, deals and incidents.
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February 14, 2021
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February 14, 2021
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