Anna Arutunyan - The Putin mystique: inside Russia’s power cult

Anna Arutunyan

THE PUTIN MYSTIQUE

The Putin Mystique takes the reader on a journey through the Russia of Vladimir Putin, named by Forbes magazine in 2013 as the most powerful man in the world. It is a neo-feudal world where iPads, WTO membership, and Brioni business suits conceal a power structure straight out of the Middle Ages, where the Sovereign is perceived as both divine and demonic, where a mans riches are determined by his proximity to the Kremlin, and where large swathes of the populace live in precarious complacency interrupted by bouts of revolt. Where does that kind of power come from? The answer lies not in the leader, but in the people: from the impoverished worker who appeals directly to Putin for aid, to the businessmen, security officers and officials in Putins often dysfunctional government who look to their leader for instruction and protection.

In her writing career, Anna Arutunyan has travelled throughout Russia to report on modern politics. She has interviewed oligarchs and policemen, bishops and politicians, and many ordinary Russians. Her book, which has been translated into 10 languages, is a vivid and revealing exploration of the way in which myth, power and even religion interact to produce the love-hate relationship between the Russian people and Vladimir Putin.

Praise for Anna Arutunyans book

Why do so many Russians go on giving uncritical support to Putin? Arguing that Russians hold a quasi-religious respect for the state and its leader, this illuminating book delves into the intertwining of the sacred and the political in history and today.

Fresh vignettes of Putin in action illustrate both the supreme leaders attitude to his subjects and their needs, desires and fears that make him the kind of leader he has become.

Caroline Humphrey, University of Cambridge

Praise for previous editions

Anna Arutunyans book is an excellent description of Putinland, where corruption and the abuse of power makes Russia fall even further down the international corruption list, to Latin American levels.

Gvle Dagblad, Sweden

Arutunyan gives the reader a fascinating history of Russian identity, with extensive use of the long strands of literature and history. Arutunyans collection of stories is a dramatic eye opener on the Russian soul, with poignant stories about her own experiences during the large demonstrations since the Duma elections in December, when fear gave way to popular action

Politiken, Denmark

The Putin Mystique makes us wiser about a significant phenomenon in Russias past and present.

Berlingske Tidende, Denmark

A great experience lively and interestingly written

Leif Davidsen, Danish writer and journalist

First published 2014 by

Skyscraper Publications

Talton Edge, Newbold on Stour,

Warks CV37 8TR, U.K.

www.skyscraperpublications.com

Copyright 2014 Anna Arutunyan

Tous droits de traduction, de reproduction et dadaptation rservs pour tous les pays.

The authors rights are fully asserted. The right of Anna Arutunyan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Nor be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9926270-2-7
ISBN: 978-0-992627-0-4-1 (eBook)

Cover and design by

Chandler Book Design

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

I WANT THE President of the Russian Federation to decree what I should think, what religion to profess, where to work, the number of children to bear, how to live, and when to die.

Depending on whether his most supreme instructions bring me profit or ruin, I will swear fealty to him as a guarantor of stability, or decry him as a ruthless despot, a gangster, a corrupt oprichnik. For whether I am his vassal, his serf, his victim, or his foe, there is always the option of blaming him for the quotidian scurrying of life in this impossible country.

For ten years I have been recording the first draft of his rule, for readers who cared only about his nukes and his spies, and who asked endlessly, Who is Mr. Putin? missing the point entirely, for there is no mystery in the inimitable stare of his pale blue eyes, nor in the intent and the will that they may or may not conceal.

I have been in the presence of the sovereign on ten occasions. I have suffered his dreary aluminium stare for a total of about thirty seconds. My mind concealed no treacherous thoughts, no unpaid taxes, no unfulfilled obligations, and most of all no unspoken ridicule and thus did not shrivel in terror. I found no soul there, nothing interesting at all. In fact, the closest approximation to what I saw when he stared at me for a few moments as he would at a wallpaper decoration, after his bored, impatient glance flitted all over the room was a reflection of whatever I wanted to see.

Those who wanted to understand who Putin is have already understood him, his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told me cryptically, smiling under his moustache and staring that same aluminium stare. Those who do not want to, well, they never will.

No, the mystery lies with whoever that stare is directed at be he a quavering official, a defiant journalist, a loyal or betrayed soldier, a friendly or corrupt businessman, or a harried petitioner, kneading his cap in his hands as he waits for his ruler to sort out his problems.

* * *

After over 20 years of transitioning towards democracy, with Putin having returned for a third presidential term that is to last six years, there is little doubt that democracy hasnt really happened in Russia. There is also some consensus emerging that, with Vladimir Putins future looking increasingly shaky, democracy wont simply happen when he departs. In the literature that seeks to understand why, one concept is being cited with increasing frequency: the country is described as being a dual state. Some, like Russia scholar Richard Sakwa, describe a country in the throes of a battle between a legal-rational and a neo-patrimonial state.

In a legal-rational state, power rests with laws, institutions and the bureaucracy. Officials will often abuse their positions for personal gain, a phenomenon which is referred to as corruption and which exists, to various extents, in any country. When officials abuse their positions to the extent that the institutions stop functioning, the the country can become a failed state, a condition which usually presumes a collapse of governance. In a patrimonial state, power rests individually with the person of the leader; when the feudal element is introduced, it means that power also rests with an oligarch or a local or regional official who, to a large extent, can control a certain territory as a personal domain.

On the outside, Russia is governed by a legal-rational state. It has a system of laws, institutions and a bureaucracy that, at first glance, struggles to govern the country but is abused to such an extent that Russia is in constant danger of becoming a failed state. On second glance, however, it becomes evident that those laws and institutions often simply clash with the reality on the ground. Whatever Russia has, its not a failed state because its not really collapsing largely because the more fluid, informal, and often irrational system of patrimonialism kicks in to govern the country.