Kicking the Kremlin: Russia's New Dissidents and the Battle to Topple Putin

by Marc Bennetts

Overview

In the freezing winter of 2011, in what was a watershed moment, 100,000 took to Moscow’s streets to protest Putin’s landslide election victory amid widespread allegations of corruption and vote-rigging. A few months later, Pussy Riot hit headlines around the world when they were arrested following their anti-Putin demonstration in a Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Now, Marc Bennetts takes us straight to the beating heart of the opposition movement, introducing a generation of Russian dissidents, all united by their hatred of Putin and his bid to silence all political adversaries. We meet a bustling cast of urban youth, blogging and tweeting to expose the injustices of the regime, and a rag-tag bunch of dissenters – from Bolshoi ballerinas to skinhead nationalists. Featuring interviews with everyone from Gary Kasparov to top Kremlin loyalists, this is the definitive guide to the vicious battle for Russia’s soul.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780743493
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	02/06/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Marc Bennetts is a British journalist based in Moscow. He has reported from Russia, Iran and North Korea for The Times, the Guardian, the Observer, and the New York Times, among other publications. His first book, Football Dynamo, examined Russian culture and society through the country’s national sport.
Marc Bennetts is a British journalist based in Moscow. He has reported from Russia, Iran and North Korea for The Times, the Guardian, the Observer, and the New York Times, among other publications. His first book, Football Dynamo, examined Russian culture and society through the country's national sport.

Table of Contents

List of Main Characters vii

Prologue: One Day in December xiii

1 Putin's Pact 1

2 Putin and his 'Sovereign Democracy' 9

3 The 'Orange Threat' and the Early Dissenters 30

4 Medvedev and the Scent of Change 44

5 Navalny and the 'Crooks and Thieves' 65

6 Castling at the Kremlin 88

7 Polls and Protests 96

8 Udaltsov and the New Left 119

9 Pussy Riot vs the Kremlin 130

10 Putin's Return 153

11 Tightening the Screws 177

12 Pussy Riot - The Verdict 193

13 Dark Days 207

14 Next Target - The New Left 221

15 The People's Wrath 235

16 End of the Line for Navalny? 244

Epilogue: Dreams of Something More 267

Notes 273

Further Reading/Watching 291

Index 293

Acknowledgements 301

Editorial Reviews

'Dark, compelling, and illuminating. Bennetts meets priests, lawmakers, spin-doctors, ordinary Russians, left-wing agitators, and riot cops in this vivid first-hand portrait.'

Luke Harding

‘Strongly written, well-researched and timely... Kicking the Kremlin should be read now.’

TLS

'Bennetts has done an excellent job of drawing together the scattered beads of a sobering story.'

Susan Richards

'An engagingly grim, frequently absurdist portrait of Vladimir Putin and the popular protests against him.'

Kirkus Reviews

'This book gives a fascinating peek at the shifting political landscape in one of the world’s most opaque nations.'

Press Association

'Vivid and insightful. Bennetts captures a transitional moment in Russian history. Years from now, when researchers are seeking to explain the second Putin era, they would do well to use this reportage.'

Daniel Kalder

'Electrifying'

Booklist

'A lively, sardonic account of Putin’s reign and those opposed to it'

Metro

'Bennetts' entertaining book Kicking the Kremlin could hardly have come at a better time... Bennetts is well-placed to write the book. The huge variety of his interviews, through which he elicits a pleasing selection of anecdotes, as well as accusations of being a foreign spy, show his familiarity with the country and its people.'

We Love This Book

'A compelling account of how a disparate set of political groups came together to create the largest anti-government protests Russia has seen in living memory. Bennetts doesn’t attempt any grand theologising nor does he impose his own politics on the account – which in this case is welcome.'

New Statesman

'Colourful and authoritative. The best account of Russia's protest movement and Putin's ferocious crackdown.'

Angus Roxburgh

'A lively, sardonic account of Putin’s reign and those opposed to it'

Metro M D

'A lively, sardonic account of Putin’s reign and those opposed to it'

Metro

'Electrifying'

Booklist

"Compelling...Bennett writes with clarity and wryness about a Russia on the brink of popular revolt. Read it now, after Putin's Ukrainian moves." - Irish Times

"An eerie, bone-shaking, you-are-there expose. Bennetts attends the marches and rallies, chases down the interviews and writes with clarity and wryness about, ultimately, the historical 'willingness to seek a savior figures that will rescue Russia from itself." - Booklist

"Strongly written, well-researched and timely....should be read now." - Times Literary Supplement

"A compelling account of how a disparate set of political groups came together to create the largest anti-government protests Russia has seen in living memory. Bennetts doesn't attempt any grand theologising nor does he impose his own politics on the account - which in this case is welcome." - New Statesman

"Clear-eyed...insightful...sympathetic." - Time Out London

"This book gives a fascinating peek at the shifting political landscape in one of the world's most opaque nations." Press Association

"A fascinating peek at the shifting political landscape in one of the world's most opaque nations." - Irish Examiner

"This book could hardly have come at a better time...Bennetts is well-placed to write the book. The huge variety of his interviews, through which he elicits a pleasing selection of anecdotes, as well as accusations of being a foreign spy, show his familiarity with the country and its people." - We Love This Book

"Engagingly grim, frequently absurdist portrait of Vladimir Putin and the popular protests against him, which are gaining steam. Moscow-based British journalist Bennetts (Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People's Game, 2009, etc.) maintains a cool, even tone throughout these portraits of the Putin oligarchs, who are determined to keep power, and the leaders of the dissident movements aiming to oust them. Bennetts insightfully portrays a Russia on the cusp of popular revolt." - Kirkus Reviews

"Dark, compelling, and illuminating. Bennetts meets priests, lawmakers, spin-doctors, ordinary Russians, left-wing agitators, and riot cops in this vivid first-hand portrait." — Luke Harding, Guardian correspondent and author of Mafia State

"Colourful and authoritative. The best account of Russia's protest movement and Putin's ferocious crackdown." — Angus Roxburgh, author of Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia

"Vivid and insightful. Bennetts captures a transitional moment in Russian history. Years from now, when researchers are seeking to explain the second Putin era, they would do well to use this reportage." — Daniel Kalder, author of Lost Cosmonaut

"Bennetts has done an excellent job of drawing together the scattered beads of a sobering story." — Susan Richards, author of Lost and Found in Russia: Encounters in a Deep Heartland and founding editor of OpenDemocracy Russia

From the Publisher

2014-01-05
Engagingly grim, frequently absurdist portrait of Vladimir Putin and the popular protests against him, which are gaining steam. Moscow-based British journalist Bennetts (Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People's Game, 2009, etc.) maintains a cool, even tone throughout these portraits of the Putin oligarchs, who are determined to keep power, and the leaders of the dissident movements aiming to oust them. Putin, the former security services chief anointed by outgoing Boris Yeltsin to succeed him as president in 2000, was received as a breath of fresh air by his Russian constituents when the country was reeling from the "shock therapy" of capitalism suddenly imposed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Poverty and lawlessness plagued the nation, and Putin set about restoring order with strong-arm tactics like quelling the independent media, sabotaging the courts, siphoning oil dollars, appointing regional governors rather than holding elections and stifling breakaway republics. Gradually, Russians began to grow weary of his "sausages in exchange for freedom" approach to ruling the country. Heartened by the so-called Colour Revolutions that had prevailed in ex-Soviet republics from 2003 to 2005, the "Orange threat" challenged the pro-Putin right-wing youth movement, while Other Russia leader Eduard Limonov galvanized punks and skinheads into the street-wise NatsBol. However, with the election of heir apparent Dmitry Medvedev in 2008, the "scent of change" encouraged wider protest against authority—e.g., a local mother-turned-activist who saved the Khimki forest from highway construction and lawyer Alexei Navalny's grass-roots anti-corruption campaign. The clincher was Putin's naked comeback to the presidency, a wicked "trick" engineered with Medvedev and played on the Russian people, whose mood had darkened with the rigged 2012 presidential elections, making way for huge street demonstrations in a rare show of unity, from the New Left to more vociferous groups like Pussy Riot. Bennetts insightfully portrays a Russia on the cusp of popular revolt.

Kirkus Reviews