... The epigraph to each chapter is taken from the Marquis de Custine's Journey
for our Time, an account of his travels in Russia in 1839. Custine is famous
for his penetrating and coruscating criticism of the Russia of Nicholas I, and
also for his inability to understand the inner dynamics of the polity. Custine's
account, based on a relatively short visit, is a classic 'orientalist' projection
of Western views and prejudices. Stuermer's study lacks Custine's verve, but
avoids the worst aspects of what has now once again become the common
trait of 'orientalizing' Russia. It is, however, flawed by numerous small slips,
including naming Zubkov as 'Subkov' (61, possibly because of the German
transliteration system) and, more damagingly, writing Victor Suslov as 'the
Kremlin's chief ideologist' (155) instead of Vladislav Surkov - where he
betrays his Soviet experience from the time when Mikhail Suslov was indeed
the Kremlin's grey cardinal.


Journal of Contemporary History
Richard Sakwa

Michael Stuermer, Putin and the Rise of Russia, London: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 2008; xiii + 253 pp.; £20.00 hbk; ISBN 9780297855095

Chief correspondent for Die Welt, as well as holding a professorship for many
years at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Michael Stuermer has produced
a perceptive and well-informed overview of the Putin presidency in Russia. He
covers the years 2000 to 2008, presenting incidents such as the sinking of the
Kursk in a lively and accessible style. Stuermer has spoken with many of the
leading politicians in the country in the course of his work, but above all he has
been one of the veteran members of the Valdai International Discussion Club
(the present author should declare his own membership). This has been an
annual event since 2004, bringing together a small group of Western academics,
journalists and politicians to meet Russian leaders and to discuss events of
current interest. Thus one session was devoted to energy politics, and the group
was taken to the heart of Russia's oil-producing region, the Khanty-Mansiisk
autonomous okrug of Tyumen region. Some leading Russian academics, civil
society activists and politicians are also involved, presided over by Sergei
Karaganov of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy (SVOP). Above all,
each year the group has privileged access to the president of Russia. Typically,
Putin would spend three or four hours answering questions thrown to him by
the group, with no preliminary vetting of the issues to be raised, and answering
them without notes and usually in a robust and well-informed manner.

It is on this material that Stuermer draws. Critics of the Valdai process argue
that the whole exercise is designed to brainwash the participants and turn
them into 'useful idiots', to use Lenin's rather unpleasant phrase to describe an
earlier generation of fellow-travellers. There is no question that in funding the
project, managed by RIA Novosti along with SVOP, the Russian government
hopes to bend the opinions of the participants to its view of things and thus
there is a propagandistic subtext. However, while a good proportion of the
group begin with the assumption that Russia has valid and legitimate opinions
on world affairs and thus there is not much bending to be done, a substantial
part of the group begins and ends with highly critical views. Stuermer belongs
to the former camp, although he is, like the great majority of the group, far
from uncritical.

Stuermer's account of contemporary Russia is pegged on Valdai meetings.
For example, his discussion of Islam in Russia, demography and the national
projects is sparked by the meeting with the president of Tatarstan, Mintimir
Shaimiev, and the presiding presence of the new Gul Sharif mosque, overlooking
the city with its gleaming crescent of gold, built in the Kazan Kremlin
to replace the one destroyed by Ivan the Terrible after the conquest of the
city in 1552. Similarly, discussion of energy issues is prompted by his visit to
Gazprom's headquarters in an ultra-modern tower block, and in particular
to the control room at the top of the building. On a vast wall the outlines of
Europe and western Russia are covered in a dense tracery of gas pipelines and
pumping stations showing in real time the flows and pressure as the continent's
lifeblood is pumped from east to west. The scene is reminiscent of the operations
room of a military campaign, but instead of armoured divisions and tank
brigades, the arrows indicate the resources of the 'energy superpower' as it
keeps Europe warm and fed.

The epigraph to each chapter is taken from the Marquis de Custine's Journey
for our Time, an account of his travels in Russia in 1839. Custine is famous
for his penetrating and coruscating criticism of the Russia of Nicholas I, and
also for his inability to understand the inner dynamics of the polity. Custine's
account, based on a relatively short visit, is a classic 'orientalist' projection
of Western views and prejudices. Stuermer's study lacks Custine's verve, but
avoids the worst aspects of what has now once again become the common
trait of 'orientalizing' Russia. It is, however, flawed by numerous small slips,
including naming Zubkov as 'Subkov' (61, possibly because of the German
transliteration system) and, more damagingly, writing Victor Suslov as 'the
Kremlin's chief ideologist' (155) instead of Vladislav Surkov - where he
betrays his Soviet experience from the time when Mikhail Suslov was indeed
the Kremlin's grey cardinal.

There is much to be learnt from this balanced and humane study of contemporary
Russia, including some perceptive analysis of the problems facing
Putin and his attempts to grapple with them. Above all, his analysis of foreign
policy dilemmas reflects contemporary German concerns to understand and
mediate, rather than the Anglo-American tendency to impose and confront.
This account does not pull its punches, notably in examining the flaws in
the succession elections of December 2007 (parliamentary) and March 2008 (presidential) that brought Dmitry Medvedev to power as Putin's hand-picked
successor. But in contrast to the harsh tone of much contemporary analysis,
Stuermer provides a sympathetic and informed study without hiding any of the
warts. This is no profound academic analysis of Russian politics or society, but
it is the honest view of a respected journalist and scholar, and in that context it
can be read with profit by all.

Richard Sakwa
University of Kent at Canterbury