The Putin System shows how far from the path to a market-based democracy the country has deviated. It provides one of the most penetrating, if bleak, analyses of the Russian system of recent years. . . . Those seeking to understand today’s Russia have much to gain from the English translation. Neil Buckley, Financial Times
A quarter century after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia once again looms large over world affairs, from Ukraine to Syria to the 2016 U.S. election. Yet how power works in present-day Russia—how Vladimir Putin came to power and maintains his rule—remains opaque and often misunderstood. In The Putin System, Russian economist and opposition leader Grigory Yavlinsky explains his country’s politics from a unique perspective, voicing a Russian liberal critique of the post-Soviet system that is vital for the West to hear.
