Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin

Vladimir Putin has his own idealized view of himself as CEO of “Russia, Inc.” But rather than leading a transparent public corporation, he runs a closed boardroom, not answerable to its stakeholders. Now that his corporation seems to be in crisis, with political protests marking Mr. Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, will the CEO be held accountable for its failings? “For more than a dozen years—the equivalent of three American presidential terms— Vladimir Putin has presided over the largest nation on the planet, the second most powerful nuclear arsenal, and massive natural resources. Yet there is still debate about who he really is. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy have gone a long way in answering that question, starting with the title, which makes a crucial point: even though ‘Mr. Putin’ was, in his upbringing and early career, a prototype of the Soviet man, he’s no longer ‘Comrade Putin.’ His aim is not the restoration of communism. He has made a deal with the capitalists who have thrived in Russia over the past two decades: they support him in the exercise of his political power, and he supports them in amassing their fortunes.”—from the foreword by Strobe Talbott

Fiona Hill is director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the BrookingsInstitution, where she is the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow in ForeignPolicy.

Clifford G. Gaddy is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy and Global Economy andDevelopment programs at the Brookings Institution.

Hill and Gaddy are the coauthors of The Siberian Curse: How Communist PlannersLeft Russia Out in the Cold (Brookings).