The man without a face
Subtitle: the unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin
By: Masha Gessen
Publisher: Riverhead Books; RIVERHEAD BOOKS
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9781594488429
Copyright date: 2012
Subjects: Politics and government; Presidents
Description: This is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to her own people and to the world. Handpicked by the "family" surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had stood in the shadows was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave, and smashed the country's fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies. As a journalist living in Moscow, Masha Gessen experienced this history firsthand, and she has drawn on sources no other writer has tapped.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [292]-307) and index.
Table of contents: title: The accidental president; title: The election war; title: The autobiography of a thug; title: Once a spy; title: A coup and a crusade; title: The end of Sobchak; title: The day the media died; title: The dismantling of democracy; title: Rule of terror; title: Insatiable greed; title: Back to the USSR.