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    The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
    Unavailable
    The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
    Unavailable
    The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
    Audiobook22 hours

    The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin

    Written by Steven Lee Myers

    Narrated by Rene Ruiz

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The New Tsar is the book to listen to if you want to understand how Vladimir Putin sees the world and why he has become one of the gravest threats to American security.

    The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president-the only complete biography in English - that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history, by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.

    In a gripping narrative of Putin's rise to power as Russia's president, Steven Lee Myers recounts Putin's origins-from his childhood of abject poverty in Leningrad, to his ascension through the ranks of the KGB, and his eventual consolidation of rule. Along the way, world events familiar to readers, such as September 11th and Russia's war in Georgia in 2008, as well as the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, are presented from never-before-seen perspectives.

    This book is a grand, staggering achievement and a breathtaking look at one man's rule. On one hand, Putin's many reforms-from tax cuts to an expansion of property rights-have helped reshape the potential of millions of Russians whose only experience of democracy had been crime, poverty, and instability after the fall of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, Putin has ushered in a new authoritarianism, unyielding in his brutal repression of revolts and squashing of dissent. Still, he retains widespread support from the Russian public.

    The New Tsar is a narrative tour de force, deeply researched, and utterly necessary for anyone fascinated by the formidable and ambitious Vladimir Putin, but also for those interested in the world and what a newly assertive Russia might mean for the future.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 29, 2015
    ISBN9780147520913
    Unavailable
    The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin

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    Reviews for The New Tsar

    4/5

    28 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Quite a thorough biographical and political portrait of Putin, starting as far back as his grandparents. I had my own agenda: having missed that part of history in that part of the world after immigrating to US in 1978 from what is now Ukraine, I was eager for a fresh perspective on how things went on politically during this stretch of years. And this book provided it, as it was not just about Putin but everything that surrounded him throughout his life.Having said that, I cannot tell for sure that the enigma of Putin has been totally explained. True, when a person like Putin reaches power, there is no room for democracy. That much was clear half way through the book. Also, and it may sound weird, but I felt a tiny whiff of admiration from the author while describing some of Putin's traits and actions. Maybe it was admiration for the strength of character without regard what it stood to gain - I am not sure... Also, a couple of curious facts: while in college, Putin plagiarized part of his thesis (which was not detected for years), and also there was a substantial rumor of his cosmetic surgery in later years... all this throwing some light on his super ambitious and narcissistic personality.In any event, I got more than a glimpse into what actually transpired in Soviet Union and post-communist Russia, including recent events in Ukraine, in detail - which really got my attention, as well as all the interactions of Putin vs the world. I was surprised to discover that there actually were tensions between Putin and Medvedev - the man whom he himself promoted into power for 4 years, after which he again "re-elected himself" as President. I didn't that realize Medvedev, being Putin's protege, had it in him to oppose his "boss", but he did, albeit only temporarily and rather weakly, in trying to make a stand on some critical changes in the country's policies.I'd like to finish with a quote or two. First by a filmmaker Igor Shadhan describing Putin as "lonely, rigid in his dogmas, distrusting and afraid even of those in his entourage who would want revenge as soon as he steps down because many of them are humiliatingly dependant on him." And also this fine conclusion from the author:"He had restored neither the Soviet Union, no the tsarist empire, but a new Russia with the characteristics and instincts of both, himself as secretary general and sovereign, as indispensable as the country behind the only leader anyone could now imagine because he was, as in 2008 and 2012, unwilling to allow any alternative to emerge."The book is not a "dry documentary" type of writing, it got my full attention.
    • 4/5
      "The New Tsar" is a good account of Putin's "Rise" and "Reign." Steven Lee Myers is a journalist and in many ways it shows throughout the text that what you're reading are almost extended journalistic pieces of famous events/personalities that made headlines in their time rather than in-depth historical coverage. Some of the topics covered in one or two chapters (Beslan, Kursk, Chechnia, Yukos affair, etc.) have entire volumes dedicated to them by historians and scholars that often do more justice to them than the space provided for here. Nonetheless, what Myers does well is congest a lot of information into a readable account, pretty much what journalists are paid to do. The majority of the text leans from unbiased to somewhat biased (against Russia/Putin), not that one can fault Myers, Putin and his time in office have witnessed numerous disasters, mysterious deaths, wars, the jailing of prominent members of Russian society, etc. A more subjective approach, however, I think would have been helpful for western readers to gain a sense of where Putin and the many Russians who support him are coming from - even if their arguments are often laced with familiar propaganda. There is a lot to learn here for those somewhat familiar with the Russia of the post-Soviet period, those totally unfamiliar might get lost among the many names, places, and events that Myers goes over with, at times, the briefest of descriptions. Personally, I've long suspected that Putin's Russia is less so guided by ideology than by Geo-politics and economics, which often come into direct conflict with European and American organizations that appear to Russia as encroaching on her "spheres of influence." Russia often appears to be the epitome of crony capitalism, the revolving door that we're so familiar with in the US (between corporations and political positions) is a given in Putin's administration, except it's more brazen than in the west. Embezzling, fraud, tax evasion, etc., are all prevalent within the Russian economy, but its fallout is usually much easier to spot than in the US where our economy and GDP dwarf Russia to enough of a degree that billions can be siphoned off and usually forgotten about within a matter of months if not weeks. It's as if Russia has taken the worst aspects of capitalism that exist in the US and around the world and applied them to the 10th degree. While some of Putin's early reforms helped raise the average Russian's economic situation in terms of buying power and savings, what has happened after that initial term in the early 2000s has been a policy of attempting to strengthen the state to the detriment of any and all "democratic" institutions that might have existed. This enriching of friends and focusing power within the hands of a "loyal entourage" means Putin becomes that much more frightened of what will happen once he's out of office. What he undid after Yeltsin stepped down is undoubtedly in the back of his mind and his losing power seems an impossibility in the near future as his popularity continues permeate much of the Russian population.
    • 4/5
      There are so many books about Putin it's hard to know where to begin. Most of them are pushing a political agenda, usually by his critics. Myers biography is being hailed as the most complete and neutral to date. That is not to say he goes to the opposite extreme and white washes Putin, Myers can be critical of his actions both implicitly and explicitly, but it never feels like a polemic. Myers gives credit when warranted, Putin is a complex figure who has remade himself numerous times over the years for better and worse. Russia is a closed society, culturally and otherwise, public figures often lead closed lives unlike in the west. So a book like this is very revealing and interesting.The first half of the narrative concerns his rise to the Presidency and the second half the years 2000 to 2015. The first half can test your patience as so often with biographies the early years are not as interesting but it becomes much more interesting after 2000 and the Moscow Apartment bombings. As a personality Putin emerges as a "bronze man", a Russian saying concerning someone who has himself cast in bronze (a self-important statue) but is fragile and easily broken. Putin puts on an air of non-nonchalance and steely confidence in public, but he has a thin skin ego and rages in private at his enemies who he punishes with the full might of his powers. There have been countless assassinations. He and his circle operate not outside the law, but as the law itself. For example, Putin re-wrote the Constitution to allow him to stay in power through at least 2024 - without any legal or political opposition. Putin is paranoid seeing conspiracy and threat all around. This is typical of Russian politicians who fear yet another invasion from an over-crowded west (and east) seeking "living space". Meanwhile it is Putin himself who is invading and appropriating territory (Crimea). Putin and Russia are today the same thing, he acts on his own volition without recourse to anyone. We no longer speak of "Russia" but of "Putin", Putin is Russia and without him there is no Russia. Putin's strengths and weaknesses, his fears and foibles - that is Russia not because all Russian's are like Putin, but all Russians have been subsumed by one man. With Crimea and Ukraine, Putin is entering a new and dangerous era. In the end it is the Russian people who willingly went along. Until they take control and responsibility as individuals, Russia will remain a place of dictatorship, fear and violence.
    • 5/5
      During the election pre-season in America, I was as surprised and intrigued at the support for Donald Trump as the rest of the thinking universe (not the pundits, of course). As I laughed at his unscripted policy-free speeches and intentionally note-worthy off-the-cuff remarks, I remember thinking I would love to see the effect of his ‘shock and awe’ campaign on someone like Putin. I thought Trump would be too unpredictable and outspoken for Putin. I am ready to take that back. In a weird kind of way, both men, neither political operatives at the start of their careers, are a similar kind of not-liberal, not-conservative, whatever-works nationalist kind of politician. And both have created a cult of personality to facilitate a kind of one-man rule.Myers allowed me to catch this glimpse of Putin at his start in government as an ordinary man unused to and previously uninterested in political power. When he began in the Sobchak Leningrad government, he may or may not have been involved in skimming from contracts he arranged with the newly burgeoning private sector after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He certainly was in a position to do so, and many of the people he awarded contracts did so: he formed firm friendships and nurtured loyal apparatchiks in Leningrad that reappear throughout his political career. But it is also true that Russia in the early 1990’s was a wild place with many crime lords jockeying for power. Putin’s family was targeted at least once. Putin did not at that time appear to have the trappings of new wealth, though we learned only recently of monies in his name from the Panama Papers. It is possible that his wealth accumulated from later dealings.It has always been difficult to understand why Putin was reputed to enjoy such wide public support in Russia, but I realize now that our media reporting emphasized bad judgment and outcomes while Russian media outlets emphasized good intent and nationalism. Myers gives a far more nuanced picture of Putin growing into his role as president—prime minister—president again in this book. If Putin didn’t begin as a friend to oligarchs, he gradually relaxed into the role. He began as a man with he stated goal of “making Russia great again.” He could see that some people were gaming the system by purchasing national reserves of commodities improperly priced and selling them at more realistically priced international values. This was not illegal at the time, just morally suspect. Rather than trying to fix the system of laws that allowed this rape of mineral and energy resources to continue, Putin selectively applied legal and taxation rules on the books to hamper, entangle, or otherwise inhibit the activities of people who did not work closely with him.Myers charts the hardening of Putin’s character, from his shock and dismay upon learning that Yeltsin had chosen him as a political successor to his chagrin upon learning that his chosen successor, Medvedev, had both an opinion and a weakness that didn’t partner Putin well. And what was very clear in Myers’ telling was the perception of U.S. foreign policy decisions by Russians and Putin. By the time Edward Snowden comes on the scene late in the book, we laugh at Putin’s pleasure in pointing out political dissidence and jail is not just a Russian thing.”Ask yourself, do you need to put such people in jail, or not?”Putin was more confident during his second presidency and yet the moment he assumed power the second time his poll ratings began to fall. It was the moment citizens realized that there was really no conversation, no political discussion going on. It only takes twenty years for a political climate to change irrevocably: ask Hillary Clinton. In twenty years, young people with no historical memory bring a new clarity to what is happening right now, with no regard to what came before. Pussy Riot called out Putin; Sanders’ supporters are calling out Clinton. Putin operated, and operates now, by relying on a close and loyal group of political “friends” from his time in the FSB and his time working for Sobchak in Leningrad. Loyalty is so prized that it would not surprise me to learn that some of the political murders committed during Putin’s reign were not “ordered” by himself. It seems entirely possible to me that elements in a large bureaucracy might prove their loyalty by eliminating static that was damaging to the leader. The problem with a large bureaucracy is that it can take on a character of its own and is not easy to change. A really strange event occurred early in Putin’s first presidency: the bombing of the apartment buildings in Moscow and the sacks of FSB-sourced explosives found in the apartment building in Ryazan. These incidents have never been satisfactorily explained, and could be an example of a bureaucracy grinding out [imperfect] solutions to perceived problems that impact Putin & Co. In a case like that, or in the case of sheer incompetence (also an enduring feature of large bureaucracy), it is not hard to see Putin keeping mum out of loyalty to those he is protecting. Some actions, like poisoning political opponents or shooting reporters in the the stairwells of their buildings, are simply too crude, destructive, and beneath the dignity of someone in power to imagine they are a “command.” Bill Browder’s account of his time making money hand-over-fist in the 1990’s in Russia, Red Notice, mentioned that powerful figures known to Putin wanted the real estate on which those apartment buildings were built and were meeting resistance. Whatever the truth of the matter, this did not have to originate in the Kremlin to be horrifying in its motivation. It does appear, however, that it was condoned by the Kremlin since a good explanation was never uncovered.One of the things that motivates Putin is the expanding power of NATO in Europe. Putin still thinks in terms of great powers and feels he is being hemmed in by Western Europe nibbling away at his satellite countries. It is hard not to sympathize. Certainly that is happening, and will continue to happen in a Clinton presidency, further exacerbating Putin’s bellicosity, and sense of infringement and inferiority. Russia is a huge country. “Too big, really” says Ian Frazier in his big book Travels in Siberia . Putin says its size and different cultures is the reason there cannot be a representative democracy like that in America. Since even America doesn’t seem to the have the process working very well at the moment, it is difficult to pretend to know what difficulties arise when trying to restore the kind of power that was shattered by the overthrow of the tsar in twentieth century Russia. The only thing I would concede is that ruling Russia must be a very difficult job, particularly when one is looking backward. One must look ahead, not backward, when one is leading, it seems to me. I feel like I have gotten a terrific education reading this book and am much better able to parse news coming out of Russia, Europe, and the Middle East today. I can now put Putin into the context vis-a-vis U.S. diplomatic relations. Clinton must be the last person Putin would want to see be elected president in the United States, and in some ways Trump is as unpredictable as Putin has claimed he has tried to be. But I am not recommending a vote for Trump. I think a better choice might be neither of these two.