Wherever you turn – from contemporary literature to media reporting – there seems to be an unremittingly negative portrayal of modern Russia as corrupt, undemocratic and gangster-run. Is that a fair description? A free election is not just about counting the votes correctly; it’s about what happens in the campaign. And I think that the way the campaign was constructed meant there wasn’t any doubt about Putin winning it because you didn’t have any serious challenger on the ballot – you had two professional losers, a clown and a stooge. So obviously Putin looked good against them. The other thing is that he had the relentless support of all the mainstream media and particularly television where most Russians get their news. The rigging you do on election day is the least important bit of election rigging. OK, let’s move on to Etkind now, who is a Cambridge academic. Can you tell us more about the thesis of this book? Uncovers a fascinating truth … The real interest in this book lies in its unstinting analysis of the ideological sources of Putin’s conservatism. … Notably rigorous [it is] a must-read for those wanting to understand the Russian leader’s ideological roots — disturbing and fascinating in equal measure.’ — Le Figaro

You’ve chosen five books for us, all of which have been published relatively recently. Is there a single thread that ties your choices together? Shchekochikhin’s girlfriend Alyona Gromova recalled: “On the day he was taken to hospital, he felt very weak. After he had a shower, his hair was a mess. I went to stroke it and great handfuls of hair came out in my hand. The symptoms were confusing. First, it seemed like a cold but his face was very red, as if he had sunburn, then lumps of his skin started to flake off.” It’s a very polemical portrait of Putin, a man whom she detests. I think she nails a lot about him. She really focuses in on Putin the man and inverts this common picture of a glamorous, decisive, tough guy to show that the reality is sordid, scary and in a way rather pathetic. Madeleine Albright is a former US Secretary of State, and this book combines her fascinating political insights with an acute awareness of the ever-present threat of tribal ideologies turning virulent and potentially destroying liberal democracy.

This is a very traditional study of a very contemporary figure. At a time when so many biographies seem either built around some controversial core argument (typically finding some scandal to unearth or invent) or have gone minimalist (my own “We Need to Talk About Putin” is less than one-fifth the size of Philip Short’s doorstop), this is old school in all the best ways. Mr. Short, a British foreign correspondent who has written biographies of François Mitterrand, Pol Pot and Mao Zedong, has pored over all the interviews, followed up on all the leads and spoken to everyone from academics to policy makers. The result is comprehensive, but the fluid prose keeps readers from getting lost or bogged down in details. A specialist may cavil at some points, and at times one could use a brisker pace and lighter touch, but for a complete and judicious biography of this deeply, even pathologically private man, this is the best yet. You’ve touched on the question of whether Putin will last the six years of the presidency. Masha Gessen, who is a Russian American journalist, also thinks the Putin bubble is likely to burst at some point. Can you tell us about her book, The Man Without a Face? As terrifying as this incident must have been, in a way it pales by comparison with another moment in the book in which Browder recalls the 2018 Helsinki summit between Putin and Donald Trump. Out of the blue, Putin offered to swap some Russian intelligence agents for Browder, and in a joint press conference Trump said that he thought it was “an incredible offer”. Film-maker Angus Macqueen has helped create a platform of award-winning documentaries, Russia On Film

The dominance of the oil and gas sector has allowed Russia to punch above its weight in the world. Without it, the Russian government would surely behave differently. Yuri Shchekochikhin was a Russian MP and journalist investigating these mass killings. He had courage, tremendous energy, a nose for a story and, I’ve been told, a fondness for Armenian brandy. In January 2003, he told a friend, “For the first time in my life I feel frightened.” Expertly explores the intellectual influences on Russian President Vladimir Putin . . . Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the book is the way it easily moves from philosophical interpretation to discussion of geopolitical realities. This book is necessary to understand Russia and its influence in the world today.’ — Choice Etkind’s thesis is that Russia has had a unique model of development, which is that it colonised itself. Lots of European countries had empires, but they colonised other countries and territories across the world – sometimes with conspicuous brutality and other times with a civilising mission, and sometimes a mixture of the two. But in Russia’s case the colonisation started from the very earliest stage of the Russian state. It was initially based on fur and timber and other types of resources and then later moved on to gas and oil. It’s meant that you’ve never had a proper relationship between the rulers and the ruled. It encouraged the impetuous and exploitative acts of behaviour, first by the barons of the feudal overlords, then the aristocracy of the Tsarist era and then the communist aristocracy. It’s always based on contempt and brutality and it hasn’t really changed.The rise of totalitarian ideologies and movements such as BLM, critical race theory, Antifa, and woke extremism on the left, and authoritarian quasi-fascist narratives on the right like QAnon, Proud Boys, Orban, Putin, Erdogan, and others represent equally serious challenges that transcend…