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Putin's Russia
Author(s): Lilia Shevtsova (Author)
- Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Publication Date: 31 Mar. 2003
- Language: English
- Print length: 298 pages
- ISBN-10: 087003202X
- ISBN-13: 9780870032028
Book Description
On December 31, 1999, ailing political maverick Boris Yeltsin abruptly handed the country’s leadership over to the virtually unknown former intelligence officer Vladimir Putin. The new Kremlin boss represented both continuity and change. While he was linked with the past, he also signified a sharp break from it. With Putin’s ascent to power, Russian leadership and Russia have changed dramatically. A pragmatic manager, Putin has tamed the Russian elite and arrogant tycoons, pushed forward economic reforms previously stalled under Yeltsin, and instituted a pro-Western foreign policy. He has accomplished all of this while maintaining a 70 per cent approval rating. However, Russia’s transformation under Putin remains a paradox. Outwardly he has proved his desire to modernize Russia, but he has also demonstrated a deep distrust of major democratic institutions and an open desire to keep tight control over the society. In this volume, Lilia Shevtsova examines how, under Putin, the country vacillates between optimism and anguish, hope and resentment. She studies the true nature of Putin’s leadership and how far he is willing to go and capable of going with further transformation. Time will tell if he can combine his authoritarian ways with economic liberalism and pro-western policy to define the Russia of the 21st century.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Lilia Shevtsova co-chairs the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, dividing her time between the Carnegie office in Washington, D.C. and the Carnegie Moscow Center. She is author of Putin’s Russia (2005) and Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality (1999), and coeditor (with Archie Brown) of Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin: Political Leadership in Russia’s Transition (2001), all published by the Carnegie Endowment.
