Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia | Steve Levine

Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia | Steve Levine | Putin's Labyrinth

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Putin's Labyrinth:...

	Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia Steve Levine Random House, 2008 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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The new Russia is marching in an alarming direction. Emboldened by escalating oil wealth and newfound prominence as a world power, Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, has veered back toward the authoritarian roots planted in Imperial/Czarist times and firmly established during the Soviet era. Though Russia has a new president, Dmitri Medvedev, Putin remains in control, rendering the democratic reforms of the post-Soviet order irrelevant. Now, in Putin?s Labyrinth, acclaimed journalist Steve LeVine, who lived in and reported from the former Soviet Union for more than a decade, provides a penetrating account of modern Russia under the repressive rule of an all-powerful autocrat. LeVine portrays the growth of a ?culture of death??from targeted assassinations of the state?s enemies to the Kremlin?s indifference when innocent hostages are slaughtered.

Drawing on new interviews with eyewitnesses and the families of victims, LeVine documents the bloodshed that has stained Putin?s two terms as president. Among the incidents chronicled in these pages: The 2002 terrorist takeover of a crowded Moscow theater?which led to the government gassing the building, and the deaths of more than a hundred terrified hostages?seen here from new angles, through the riveting words of those who survived; and the murder of courageous investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, shot in the elevator of her apartment building on Putin?s birthday, purportedly as a malicious ?gift? for the president from supporters. Finally, a shocking story that made international headlines?the 2006 death of defector Alexander Litvinenko in London?is dramatized as never before. LeVine traces the steps of this KGB-spy-turned-dissident on his way to being poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive isotope. And in doing so, LeVine is granted a rare series of interviews with a KGB defector who was nearly killed in strangely similar circumstances fifty years earlier. Through LeVine?s exhaustive research, we come to know the victims as real people, not just names in brief news accounts of how they died.

Putin?s Labyrinth is more than an immensely readable exposé. It is highly personal, with the flavor of a memoir. It is a thoughtful book that examines the perplexing question of how Russians manage to negotiate their way around the ever-present danger of violence. It calculates the emotional toll that this lethal maze is exacting on ordinary people, even as they enjoy a dramatically heightened standard of living. Most ominously, it assesses the reopening of hostilities with the West, and the forces that are driving this major new confrontation.

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Agree or Disagree with it, a Book To Read

Steve LeVine's compelling and engagingly horrified study of the 'dark heart of the new Russia' stands head and shoulders above the spate of books triggered by the Litvinenko murder because it is not about one killing so much as 'a chronicle of violence in modern-day Russia, a place that seems unwilling or unable to escape its horrific past.' (p. xxii) It is difficult in general terms to resist LeVine's claim that 'Putin's rule protects those who are inside the system or at least accept it. Outsiders cannot expect the same protection. That applies to business, politics, or journalism. Violence can be permissible against those deemed to be outsiders.' (p. 120) Journalistic books on Russia are often readable, even entertaining, but too frequently of little lasting importance. While undeniably a page-turner, this book also advances a thesis about Putin's Russia that does deserve serious consideration. It is certainly uncomfortable in that it can too easily make it seem as if the Russians are being cast simply as passive casualties of their history at best, willing collaborators with a cynical and thuggish regime at worst. It is also too early to see how well it applies to the Medvedev presidency, although events in Georgia may suggest that he is not so far removed from his patron and predecessor. Accept LeVine's stark thesis or not, it is certainly worth exploring and debating.

Dr Mark Galeotti
Keele University

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Putin's Labyrinth

For someone with little or no exposure to recent sources on Putin's Russia, this is an excellent starting point for understanding unfolding events inside the Russian Federation. The photographs of the "players" are a nice "addition" normally missing from most recent current events books--a definite plus.

On the downside, although it provides a good general overview of current developments in Russia, it at times appears to rely too much on secondary sources, such the 2007 book "Blowing Up Russia".

Nevertheless, it is an "easy read" and worth the effort.

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"RUSSIA'S...LABYRINTH"

"PUTIN'S LABYRINTH", by Steve LE Vine is an informative and short, but vivid portrayal of today's Russia and it's indisputable leader, Mr. Vladimir Putin. However, this book could just as easily have been entitled: "Stalin's Labyrinth," "Ivan's Labyrinth," or for that matter, "The Czar's Labyrinth." The point being that..."Mr. Putin" seems to be doing exactly what most of Russia's leaders have done throughout the past centuries. The difference perhaps, Mr. Putin seems to be more of a "Realpolitikist" than most (except perhaps, for... Stalin).

The author insinuates that murder and mayhem may be in the "Russian DNA" itself due to their prior history of invasion, tyranny, and dictatorships. I believe there is some truth (symbolically, psychologically, and litterally), in this statement.

In addition, the author seems to focus more on the "Labyrinth" portion than on Vladimir himself. Mr. Putin is of course, former KGB (FSB), and his entire formative years were spent in the Soviet Intelligence community where he, constantly learned to search and weed out any dissenters, be it against himself, or...the "Apparatchik." Alexander Litviinenko (former KGB agent) and Anna Politkovskaya (Russian journalist), are sad and unfortunate reminders of this truth.

The author quotes an old KGB defector who points to a very important difference in Putin's Russia compared to the prior Soviet Union. Oleg Gordievsky told the author: "The KGB without the Communist Party is a gang of gangsters." That is not to say that, the KGB was not always "a gang", but without the "Central Point" the participants need answer to no one, or no thing.

The author seems to rightly insinuate that Vladimir Putin has taken on a "symbiotic relationship" between the State (himself), and that of numerous criminal elements that work well together in maintaining the present status quo. The State controls the political arena, oil shipments, natural resources, and...the military. The criminal elements...the social needs and demands.

In reading this book, I could not help but see many growing parallels to the on-going events in the country of Mexico, but without a prresent day "Putin" or..."Central Point."

This is agood book, and goes into a great detail regarding many of the tragic events surrounding those people who tried to stand up for change. Realistically however, it appears "that type of change" is many years away.

The Oprichniki is still very much alive and well in Russia. The perpetrators no longer need carry around dog's heads and brooms upon their horse sadles to symbolize total devotion to "sweeping away sedition." They now ride in Mercedes and make no mistake, their rabid devotion to gaining money, economic wealth, and acknowledgement as a world power is no less important!

What ever he may be...Putin is witty, intelligent, frightning, dangerous, impatient, and above all...Russian.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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