Putins Kleptocracy_ Who Owns Russia_ - Karen Dawisha.epub

Russian scholar Dawisha describes and exposes the origins of Putin;s kleptocratic regime. She presents extensive new evidence about the Putin circle;s use of public positions for personal gain even before Putin became president in 2000. She documents the establishment of Bank Rossiya, now sanctioned by the US; the rise of the Ozero cooperative, founded by Putin and others who are now subject to visa bans and asset freezes; the links between Putin, Petromed, and ;Putin;s Palace near Sochi; and the role of security officials from Putin;s KGB days in Leningrad and Dresden, many of whom have maintained their contacts with Russian organized crime.



Putin;s Kleptocracy is the result of years of research into the KGB and the various Russian crime syndicates. Dawisha;s sources include Stasi archives; Russian insiders; investigative journalists in the US, Britain, Germany, Finland, France, and Italy; and Western officials who served in Moscow. Russian journalists wrote part of this story when the Russian media was still free;Many of them died for this story, and their work has largely been scrubbed from the Internet, and even from Russian libraries, Dawisha says.But some of that work remains.