What is Reddit's opinion of The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin?

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The wikipedia page lists a source for my first claim (and possibly the second, haven't checked). I already knew about the event and those details, however, from <em>The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin</em> by Masha Gessen.

I just finished The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen. It was published in 2012, but is still relative. It's the story of how Putin came to power; I highly recommend that anyone somewhat interested in Russian politics read it. I am not Masha Gessen.

Masha Gessin's book on the rise of Putin The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514 does a great job of explaining how the Russian oligarchy functions and includes a detailed account of Browder's experience too.

Maybe you're comfortable with a foreign actor manipulating internal politics here to their own ends. Not me.

I read this when it came out about three years ago. You, clearly, have not.

His cover was as a translator, but per this BBC article and Masha Gessen's book on him, his job was probably pretty boring.

According to WaPo, he may have been ultimately trying to NATO secrets and Western technology. That sounds cool in theory, but idk how fun that would have been in practice, given it was Dresden in the 80s. The WaPo article also says he was probably tasked with recruiting new officers, but as I recall, Gessen's book doesn't make mention of that. In either case, those tasks would have undoubtedly involved a ton of dull work.

Though, I'll admit that while looking into his German career, it occurred to me that his St Petersburg career (in the late 70s) could have been pretty exciting, especially since his work got him selected for an elite spy school.

This is the best book I’ve read on him

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514

This one I suppose?

Read this

Putin was stealing for oligarchs before any of us had ever heard his name.

I mean, I'm pretty sure we are arguing past each other at this point with some minor misconceptions of each others arguments. However I'm also not a fan of the general rudeness? It reminds me of arguing with my family who argues by yelling they are right and that is the end of it. Which is what is making me look for and try to poke minor nuanced holes in your otherwise okay arguments.

Speaking of misquoting, I never said they Were Putin's Russia but that they were styling their goals off of that system. I think one of our problems here is you consider that to be "burning the system down" whereas I see that as more of a "hollowing the system out and using its corpse as a shell." Which I think is a more precise language to use here, in part because it is very easy for them to argue they aren't burning the system down, because they wear the hollowed out parts of the system already. They Love what Putin has because that is Exactly what he has done. He took a "semi" functional burgeoning democracy, hollowed out all the democracy, and wore it like a suit claiming 'legitimacy' where there is none.

But why it has worked for so long is Exactly because at a distance it looks... legitimate enough. Lots of people in Russia will Still shrug and assume he's popular, when the reality is that he isn't. His control over media and democracy skillfully isolates his opponents so they can't see How Many people Oppose him, and therefore can't come to realize they are actually the Vast Majority. This behavior is something the Republicans have been emulating for a LONG time now. By isolating voters as much as possible to keep people from realizing that if they all voted Republicans would never hold proper office again frankly. Even in "Deep Red" parts of this country, there are Massive numbers of otherwise eligible voters that just... can't vote. Whether that be by hook or by crook, Republicans have already done a Lot of damage to our elections. Now they are going into absolute overdrive.

Speaking of "Understanding Russian Politics" I have actually read extensively on the topic, including "The Man Without a Face," "Words Will Break Cement," "October," and "The Future is History." I probably still don't know everything, simply because to make such a claim would be idiotic. However I am pretty confident in how informed I am on the topic.

I guess I can see your angle about "shrinking government" but all of that also comes with the other side of the balance. They don't just cut taxes, they give money handouts, they did many time literally give corporations handouts of money. I don't see how that is shrinking government at all, all it seems to be is taxing the poor to pay the rich. In fact, the primary legislation the enact is Exactly that, take the money from the poor and give it hand over fist to the rich. The rest could yes be seen as shrinking government, down to a size that the fewest number of people control everything.

And by gutting corruption laws I'm talking about how in the last four years they basically found every ethics group they could and Fired Everyone so that no oversight was possible. And then they went on to do their corruption in public, often on camera. In that sense I think I see where you are coming from.

I stand by my recollection of the ACA fights, there were a Lot of meetings with Republicans Before the bill was written. You can go back and see where Congress was setting aside time to debate this thing. Also I never said Romney wrote the damn thing. Democrats, in a last ditch effort to get Some form of bipartisan vote on this Took the plan Romney had Already Implemented in his state when he was Governor, a plan that the Republicans under Bush had been trumpeting as "the way to do Healthcare Reform" and their "Big Plan" to solve healthcare. Democrats said, "alright, if we do that, will we get your votes?" Republicans said "Sure." And then not a single one of them voted yes, instead All of them disavowing this plan as the utter Worst and Death Panels and Socialism. Which also shot them in the foot as we later saw they had Absolutely No other plan for how to solve Healthcare. They floundered for 12 years to put together Anything resembling a bill, but the only thing they had was the ACA, it was their only idea, Dems did it as a compromise to them and now they hate it. But they don't have anything else to replace it. Dems called their bluff and I wish that when they shot themselves in the foot there it had been fatal, but damn if their propaganda network isn't the sturdiest fucking shit out there.

We're probably both misquoting each other though, and part of that is I'm exhausted, it's my long day, lots of work, been on my feet all day and someone is being a rude dude, so I'm being rude back. For that I'm sorry. I still have quibbles, but they aren't huge enough to be worth a massive headachey fight, especially when my back is starting to hurt.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514

I've read Masha Gessen's book about Putin - I highly recommend it:https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1484750660&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=masha+gessen

Had no idea about that. Then I read The Man Without a Face.

He was appointed as president many years later and that was after he had a downfall in St. Petersburg where his party was soundly defeated. His local defeat led him to national politics. Please read the book I linked above. Masha Gessen articulates all of this perfectly, he had no real connections he was a con man that took advantage of a destroyed presidential administration. He quickly rose through ranks in government not because he had great success or good connections but rather because Yeltsin the drunk was capitulating. He was tearing down his own government creating vacancies everywhere. You give FAR too much credit to Putin.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514