Matthews has, therefore, set himself a difficult task by seeking to write “a first draft of the history of how the war began – and how the conflict moved from Russia’s blitzkrieg through stalemate to Ukrainian counter-offensive.” The focus of the book is what Matthews describes as “the most compelling mystery at the heart of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine…what was the true reason that Putin decided to go to war?” The key take home points are that the highly illiberal nature of the Control Coalition (Propaganda Department, People's Armed Police, PLA and MSS) seized upon unrest in 2008 and 2009 to expand state power and curtail personal freedoms and the bandwagoning nature of Chinese politics enabled Xi Jinping to amass greater personal power that was afforded to either Hu, Jiang or Deng. An astonishing investigation into the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war – from the corridors of the Kremlin to the trenches of Mariupol. Relations between China and the United States have deteriorated to the point that, in Susan Shirk's assessment, we are now fully embroiled in Cold War II. Combining her decades of research and experience, Shirk, one of the world's most respected experts on Chinese history and policy, focuses on this

OVERREACH | Kirkus Reviews OVERREACH | Kirkus Reviews

This means that the book ends on more pessimistic note than is in retrospect justified. In September the Ukrainian army was pushing to recapture as much land as possible before winter set in and Europe froze under a natural gas embargo. As I read this in late January 2023 Europe hasn't frozen, wholesale gas prices have fallen and most Western nations are tripping over themselves to donate heavy weapons to Ukraine. Nuclear scientist and Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov later credited Dubcek with the birth of dissent in the Soviet Soviet Union and made possible Gorbachev’s perestroika and the breakup of the Soviet union. In Part 3, Matthews attempts to devote the same careful analytical attention to events following the February 2022 invasion. The results are mixed, in large part because these events are simply too recent. Matthews adopts a thematic, rather than strictly chronological account. Important topics, such as shifts in Western attitudes to the war and the effectiveness of economic sanctions, receive attention. However, Matthews is constrained by the limited information available at the time of writing. In February 2023 the question of Western resolve, while less pressing than in late 2022, remains open in the face of a potentially protracted conflict. A full understanding of the true impact of economic sanctions, and the consequent decoupling of Russia from Western economies, awaits the sort of detailed analysis by economists that will take years.

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Even Ukrainian Russian speakers do not like to join Putin’s Russia. After all, they are much richer than the Russians. Through vivid storytelling, Matthews delves into the details of the war's early days, painting a picture of tragedy for the Ukrainian people and senseless acts of violence by Russian soldiers. The reader is also given a glimpse into the frightening atmosphere that pervaded Moscow, where the “acrid smoke” of paranoia and a “blanket of fear” shrouded the city almost instantly. I from the influence of thy looks receave / Acceſs in every Vertue, in thy ſight / More wiſe, more watchful, ſtronger, if need were / Of outward ſtrength; while ſhame, thou looking on, / Shame to be overcome or over-reacht/ Would utmoſt vigor raiſe, and rais'd unite.

Overreach by Owen Matthews | Waterstones

THE BOOK has nineteen chapters divided into three parts (1). Each chapter is divided into titled sections. There are no illustrations or maps.Feb 2022, quote formerly pro-NATO Putin rightly stating before wrongly invading, "De-Nazify Ukraine."

Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise - Goodreads

Thus did Putin fall in with the Orthodox Church-influenced Far Right, who see Mother Russia as the last bastion of traditional Christian values. We meet zealots like Alexander Dugin, a white-bearded Soviet-era intellectual who is a kind of anti-Vaclav Havel, quoting Heidegger as he rails against godless Western liberalism. And we tune into religious broadcasting like Tsargrad TV – Orthodoxy’s answer to Fox News – where moral rot is blamed on gays and human rights busybodies funded by George Soros. The invasion, says Matthews, was “the final triumph of an elderly Russia over a young one, of paranoid Soviet-minded conspiracy theorists over... post-Soviet practical capitalists.”Protests flared up across Russia in the first day of the war and were met with an overwhelming police presence. A week later a new law carried a 15-years jail term for spreading misinformation about the war. Russian TV went into overdrive, denouncing NATO and the West. Russians left Russia. Ukrainians left Ukraine.

Book Review: “Overreach” by Susan L. Shirk - Foreign Affairs Book Review: “Overreach” by Susan L. Shirk - Foreign Affairs

I found the book fairly objective, which is a plus point. It oversimplifying to cast Ukraine as the good guys and Russians as the bad guys. Ukraine did have its issues and not everyone is blameless. Most rational people act in rational ways and Putin is no exception, although the invasion turned out to be a catastrophic blunder, and a gross misreading of the situation, he still acted as he did for a reason. That's what Overreach is all about. The most eloquent manner of reading and of speaking, is the most easy of attainment, if sought for through the proper channel; for it is as simple as it is natural. But many who aim at it, fail by the very efforts adopted to gain it. They overreach the mark. They shoot too high. Instead of breathing forth their sentiments in the fervid glow of simple nature, which always warms, and animates, and interests the hearer, they work themselves up into a sort of frigid bombast, which chills and petrifies him.

Rough edges and a weaker third act do not prevent Overreach from achieving its aims. It is timely, compelling and arguably more perceptive than could reasonably be expected so soon. It is strongly recommended, especially for readers who have been following the war since February 2022, or who have some prior knowledge of Putin or Russian politics. President Yanukovych moves to Russia. New elections result in President Petro Poroshenko. Putin takes advantage of the intervening chaos in Ukraine to invade Crimea; in Donbas, in the east, local pro-Russians, with covert help from Russia, set up independent areas. Written at what must have been hypersonic speed, Overreach is a remarkable achievement, with Matthews’s expert eye like an all-seeing drone buzzing from one side of the conflict to the other. We drop in everywhere from Putin’s long white table to Zelensky’s bunker, via the siege of Kyiv and the trenches of Mariupol.