V. Putin, the leader we love to hate

The Globe and Mail has a review in today's edition of Masha Gessen's biography of Vladimir Putin, The Man Without a Face.


The Globe farmed out the review to Amy Knight, a Putin critic of long standing. In effect you have a review by a certified Putin-hater of a book written by another certified Putin-hater.

That's the state of journalistic integrity these days.

Anyway, the review mainly tries to establish that Knight is the superior Putin-hater. Gessen relies too much on ten year old(or more) stuff that is already in the public domain, according to Knight.

Here's my favorite part of the review; huge kleptocracy has emerged under Putin.


Oh really? Apparently these people have succeeded in blocking out the Yeltsin era.

Do they not remember the free-for-all that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union? Mid-level apparatchiks became billionaires overnight. By the mid 1990's over 75,000 Russians owned property on the French Riviera.

That kleptocracy did not emerge under Putin. It was brought to heel by Putin.

And that apparently is what keeps the Putin-haters in business. Without Putin, Russia would be a pliable client state willing to dance to our tune.

With Putin, it isn't.