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Putin's Russia is a book by Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya about life in modern Russia that she calls "Putin's Russia"

In the book Politkovskaya tells about transformation of Russia to police state under leadership of Vladimir Putin. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of her book is "that it feels like a Soviet-era dissident's book. Her pieces have that slightly desperate pitch of someone who fears no one is listening - that her own people have given up and that the outside world does not want to hear, or worse, does not care."

Politkovskaya describes an army in which conscripts are tortured and hired out as slaves. She described judges who are removed from their positions or brutally assaulted on the street for not following instructions "from above" to let criminals go. She condemns routine kidnappings, murders, rape, and torture of people in Chechnya by Russian military, exemplified by Yuri Budanov. She describes re-emergence of infamous Moscow Serbsky Institute of psychiatry and Dr. Tamara Pechernikova who was notorious for torturing Soviet dissidents in "psikhushkas" of 1960s and 1970s. She tells the story of Pavel Fedulev, a petty criminal who became "the leading industrialist and deputy of the legislature", as a prototype "New Russian".

Politkovskaya accuses Vladimir Putin and FSB of stifling all civil liberties to establish Soviet-style dictatorship, but tells that "it is we who are responsible for Putin's policies" in the conclusion:

"Society has shown limitless apathy... As the Chekists have become entrenched in power, we have let them see our fear, and thereby have only intensified their urge to treat us like cattle. The KGB respects only the strong. The weak it devours. We of all people ought to know that".

Critisism

Critics accused Anna Politkovskaya of being partisan by concentrating on the activities of Russian federal forces, but her supporters claim that she also strongly criticised the brutal tactics of the terrorists. She was also blamed for unwillingness to check facts before reporting them if she felt they furthered her cause.

According to journalist Anna Arutunyan, 'During a reporting trip in 2001, Politkovskaya was detained by military officials in the Chechen village of Hotuni. When she was released, she wrote that she had uncovered pits dug out in the ground where military officials would allegedly keep Chechen hostages for ransom, directly accusing General Baranov, then commander of the Chechen federal troops, of these crimes. The publication was followed by a criminal investigation based on the allegations, but a delegation of official human rights envoys was unable to find any such pits. At a later press conference in Moscow, Politikovskaya admitted that she had never actually seen the pits herself, but that witnesses related seeing them to her. In another account she had said the ransoms was $150, while in another - $500'.

Another telling example was Politkovskaya's recent allegations that special forces were preparing an "escape" for jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in the course of which he was to be killed. Her source was a retired KGB officer who had served time in the camps. While the article was published in Novaya Gazeta this spring, these allegations went nowhere.

Hence, Politkovskaya was primarily viewed as an activist rather than reporter. When terrorists held an auditorium hostage during the Nov. 2002 production of Nord-Ost, she spoke to the hostage takers and made their demands public. In Sept. 2004, terrorist in the Beslan school siege had also demanded her presence.

Against this backdrop, it would seem that despite a brave and sincere commitment to unraveling corruption and atrocities wherever possible, Politkovskaya's priorities as a journalist focused more on accusing and less on reporting.

External links

• Putins Russia by Anna Politkovskaya on English PEN web site

References

1. Reporting from the Russian Front, Review of the book by Martha Mercer, New York Sun
2. Nothing left but theft, Review of the book by Angus Macqueen, Guardian Unlimited
3. Parfitt, Tom (2006-10-08). "Assassin's Bullet Kills Fiery Critic of Putin". The Observer. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
4. ^ Anna Arutunyan Journalist Murder a Conundrum The Moscow News N39 2006

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