A book by a Russian historian and journalist was published in France, Professor of the Higher School of Economics Sergei Medvedev "Putin's Four Wars", dedicated to the Russian president. The author of the book specializes in his research on the post-Soviet history of our country..
He spoke about his book and his assessment of the activities and views of Vladimir Putin in an interview with the French edition of Le Figaro.
Sergey Medvedev's book consists of four parts. Each of them is dedicated to one of the "wars", led by the Russian leader.
According to the author, Putin's first "war" is over territorial space. The President considers one of his main tasks to compensate for the losses of Russia after the collapse of the USSR, which he calls the largest geopolitical disaster of the last century. The author compares Putin with a certain Moscow prince, collecting Russian lands. He considers this approach to be the reason for the reunification of Crimea with Russia., which he himself calls "annexation", and the desire to unite with Belarus. Although the first steps in this direction are the proclamation of the Union State, done back in 1996 year, when Putin was not president at all, and Boris Yeltsin.
The second part of the book by S. Medvedev is devoted to “war characters”. Here he gives an example of the opening of monuments, military parades, on which "nuclear missiles are dragged across Red Square", holding the Olympics in Sochi. At the same time, the author of the book is sure, that the awards of Russian athletes were won only thanks to “massive use of doping”. This says a lot about the author., as well as his sensational statement at the time about the need to turn the Arctic into “international territory”, “international reserve”.
In the third part, he talks about Putin's struggle for man, for an ordinary Russian citizen. S. Medvedev believes, that the country's authorities grossly interfere with the private life of people, trying to impose consumer and even sexual preferences on them.
Putin's fourth "war" is for memory. This was especially evident, according to the HSE professor, during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. He considers, that in Russia Victory was turned into a religion. In his opinion, the desire of the authorities to present the history of the country as a series of continuous victories is associated with their inability to build a future for their citizens.
Medvedev concludes, that Putin is a retrograde leader, rivalry, and bad politician:
Spies make bad politicians, and Putin is still a KGB officer, on a secret mission.
The historian sees opposition blogger Alexei Navalny as the only alternative to the incumbent., but doubts, that he will return to Russia. Although the NYT announced today, that Navalny, which “got better”, ready to return to Russia, but opposed a joint investigation (Russian-German) in the case of “poisoning”.
used photos:Russian President website
