Strongman, The

of all authorities and ministries not only can but must appear on federal television, explaining what goes on in their departments, explaining the processes that happen there, so that people hear from the horse’s mouth about the intentions of officials, about their plans.’ At first sight it sounds liberal. But what Russian television lacks is not ‘explanation’ of the government’s ‘intentions’ and ‘plans’ that have already been made, but free and informed debate of policies before they become government plans.
    For all the iniquities of the Putin system, however, it is not ‘like the Soviet Union’, as is so often glibly stated. I was struck by ex-President Bill Clinton’s sarcastic comment to Putin after the latter’s homily about how to reform the capitalist economy in Davos in January 2009: ‘I’m glad to hear Prime Minister Putin come out for free enterprise. I hope it works for him.’ The Baltimore Sun ran an article in 2011 about the Russians’ love of fast food restaurants under the headline: ‘We’re lovin’ it, comrade.’ Comrade! It’s 20 years since Russians were comrades – but it seems they are still lumbered with the stigma of communism.
    You only need to see the queues of excited families at Moscow airport, heading for holidays abroad, or visit the Gulag Museum with its displays from Stalin’s camps, or go to a theatre production of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , or look at Russian websites and blogs, or simply eat and shop in Moscow today, to understand that communism is well and truly buried.
    I am tempted to end by quoting Sir Rodric Braithwaite, a former British ambassador to the Soviet Union, whose affection for the country and understanding of its people leads him to a rare understanding of Russia’s situation. ‘There are many flaws in the Putin system’, he wrote. ‘But it has restored Russian self respect, and laid the ground for future prosperity and reform. As the process goes forward, the rest of us are better employed in keeping our mouths shut, rather than offering advice which is sometimes arrogant and insulting, and often irrelevant or useless.’ 3
    That is precisely what the Clinton and Bush administrations failed to do, and, as the events described in this book show, the advent of a new Cold War was probably due as much to American insensitivity as it was to Putin’s stridency in pursuing his legitimate goal of restoring Russian pride and status. As we have seen throughout this book, both sides fall too easily into stereotyped thinking, rooted in an era when two ideologies fought for world domination. That era is gone: there is no ‘Russian ideology’, and wishing to have a say in world affairs is a far cry from the Soviet ambition to spread communism around the globe. Yet the Cold War thinking and frictions remain – on both sides, each winding the other up instead of trying to understand the other’s fears.
    Russians showed during the Gorbachev and Yeltsin period that they aspired to democracy and freedom, but they hated the chaos that accompanied it. Putin brought greater stability but curtailed democracy. Russians have yet to find a leader who can provide them with both.

 

    President Yeltsin hands Vladimir Putin the seals of office, 31 December 1999. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    President Putin’s inauguration speech, 7 May 2000. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin’s St Petersburg friend Alexei Kudrin became Russia’s most successful finance minister. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin with his early team of reformers, German Gref, Alexei Kudrin and Andrei Illarionov. (Courtesy of RIA Novosti)

 

    President George W. Bush with Putin in 2001, when Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Bush and Putin became good friends despite serious policy clashes. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov came to trust one another after 9/11. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Tony and Cherie Blair with the Putins at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, March 2000. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin with one of his closest Western allies, Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin got on less well with German chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he tried to scare with his dog. (www.kremlin.ru)

 
    Victims of the Putin regime?

    Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

 

    Journalist Anna Politkovskaya. (Photo by