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Putin
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 29 hrs and 33 mins
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Putin
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Vladimir Putin is a pariah to the West.
Alone among world leaders, he has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm and has threatened to do so. He invades his neighbours, most recently Ukraine, meddles in Western elections and orders assassinations inside and outside Russia. The regime he heads is autocratic and corrupt.
Yet many Russians continue to support him. Despite Western sanctions, the majority have been living better than at any time in the past. By fair means or foul, under Putin's leadership, Russia has once again become a force to be reckoned with.
Philip Short's magisterial biography explores in unprecedented depth the personality of its enigmatic and ruthless leader and demolishes many of our preconceptions about Putin's Russia. Since becoming president in 2000, his obsession has been to restore Russia's status as a great power, unbound by Western rules. What forces and experiences shaped him? What led him to challenge the American-led world order that has kept the peace since the end of the Cold War?
To explain is not to justify. Putin's regime is dark. He pursues his goals relentlessly by whatever means he thinks fit. But on closer examination, much of what we think we know about him turns out to rest on half-truths.
This audiobook is as close as we will come to understanding Russia's ruler. It also makes us revise long-held assumptions about the course of global politics since the end of the Cold War.
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What listeners say about Putin
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Alikado
- 23-08-22
Captivating
The research and in-depth knowledge that Philip Short has into Putin’s background and recent rise in Russia is amazing.
Coupled with a well written and pacy narrative and excellent narration by Jonathan Keeble, this audiobook has kept me hooked throughout - and finally much better educated on the mind and motives of this flawed individual.
Highly recommended.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Canuk100
- 02-11-22
Objective and Well Researched
Well worth the effort to complete this very thorough examination of Putin and the people that surround him. It sits in between Catherine Belton's more strident expose and Stephen Cohen’s sycophantic misrepresentation of history. Short provides a very comprehensive and objective treatment of the subject.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Thedrisk
- 29-08-22
Well research, little apologetic of Putin
Enjoyed, well researched and written. But felt author was a little apologetic towards Putin and Russia... this is after all a man who in his name has caused multiple genocidal attacks and war crimes against multiple countries...all while pulling the freedoms of his people adopting Orwellian techniques... in levels not seen since Hitler and Stalin... and yet the author glosses over with statements its the only way the Russians know how to fight...and...Russia never really had freedom anyway.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- l a amigo
- 08-07-22
An astonishing achievement . Short’s book is nothing short of perfection
Informative, lucid and gripping. An absolute masterclass in historical biographical writing!
One if the best books I have listened to since joining Audible, where I have accumulated over 100 titles in the last 2 years!
Highly recommended.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Barry Avis
- 31-05-23
A well researched account of the life of President
Putin by Philip Short is a biography of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, lawyer, KGB officer, Prime Minister and President of the Russian Federation. It recounts his life from his childhood where he learned sambo (a Russian wrestling type martial art) and judo and got to a standard where he might have taken it up professionally, through his schooling and training as a lawyer which he needed to join the KGB where he eventually attained the rank of Colonel. He then took up several political positions, originally in his KGB activities. His rise to the top as a First Deputy Prime Minister and eventually to President. Along the way it explains why he thinks and acts the way he does and how the actions of the “West” (mostly the US) has often allowed or pushed him to do things the western press could then lambast him for.
I do not read the newspapers that are owned by right wing billionaires and although I watch British television news I am always aware of the propaganda that is passed to us on a daily basis (e.g. nurses and doctors are putting people at risk for striking whilst our government is not at fault for their under paying and underfunding for the last 8 years!). we are fed a single view of Russia and I wondered what the real story is and so I wanted to read a biography of Putin that was not openly biased in a negative or positive way if possible and this seems to me to hit the nail on the head. As a British journalist Philip Short (I hoped) would not be a “commie hating yank” or a “sycophantic Russophile” and the book comes across as a well written and researched biography leaving the reader to decide.
With all biographies of ‘controversial’ figures there is always the potential that there really is an underlying biased that the poor reader (i.e. me) just didn’t get and so I am happy for others to disagree with my contention that this appears to be relatively unbiased account of Putins’ life and I will not mention my final view of the man after reading this so hopefully I will not be trolled – if I do please note that I will not respond.
However, after reading this I am considering reading some of My Shorts’ other books and would recommend this to anyone looking for a fair account of President Putins life.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- danhawman
- 22-10-22
I thought it may be a slog.
It wasn't a slog surprisingly. Very well researched and written. Thought I'd lose interest or struggle to follow all the Russian names but it was fine. Well worth a listen if you are interested in the man.
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- Jude Uk
- 11-10-22
A great listen
Very timely & a good insight into the man behind the mask. I could listen to more. Jonathan Keeble is always worth a listen too.
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- Jon lanģley
- 11-09-22
Excellent biography
Not surprisingly there are suddenly a lot of books about Vladimir Putin on the scene. This is likely the best on offer. No sensationalism here, but a thoroughly well researched and rational account of Vladimir Putins rise through the Soviet system and how it made him the man he is today. Real rags to riches story with good explanations as to what makes him tick. Like Stalin was largely absent from the actual Soviet revolution, so Putin remained in the shadows until his time came to emerge. I highly recommend this book. Good narration too which helps.
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- Andy
- 13-09-23
Brilliant
Great read. One of the best Putin books out there. I would highly recommend it
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- Anonymous User
- 07-09-23
How Did This Get Published
You'll learn nothing insightful about him as a person. It feels like a 30 hour high-level justification of his actions with everything followed by a "but the West did this bad". Borderline propaganda and I can't understand how it was ever published. And the cherry on top is it constantly jumps between different recordings mid-sentence which is jarring.
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- Johnny Neutron
- 18-08-22
Very interesting book about recent Russian History
This book was very interesting and quite balanced too in that it doesn't paint Putin as either a saint or a devil. As a recent history of Russia it was very interesting especially the parts about the struggle against Chechen islamic terrorism and the sinking of the Kursk. At the end it lost me a bit because of the way it repeated the obvious nonsense of western propaganda about what is going on in Ukraine and Democrat lies about Donald Trump and the Covid hoax. But still a good read in the end.
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