putin’s people (catherine belton)

It’s hard to know what needs to be said about Catherine Belton’s book about the rise of Vladimir Putin and the way the former KGB has seized power in Russia and infiltrated the corridors of power far beyond. It’s one of those books which is essential reading for understanding the state of our modern world. Even if some of it were to be wide of the mark, enough of it surely hits the mark to mean that its central thesis cannot be too far off. Power is power and power always seeks to reinforce itself, but when you are British and you see the way in which the country has been manipulated and brought down, if even if a tenth of what Belton speculates is true, it makes for a profoundly depressing read. Essentially, the book argues, the establishment in Britain has allowed itself to be bought by foreign interests. As she frequently states, Putin understood that the establishment in ‘the West’ had been hollowed out of all moral value. So he could mercilessly steal, oppress and wage war, without any risk, so long as he kept their coffers full. In London, this establishment is represented by lawyers, accountants, property developers, politicians and who knows what else. Russian money has been a Trojan horse and Britain is not the only country to have been susceptible to it, but it might be we were the weakest.

This just one strand of modern Russia’s geo-political strategy. Belton’s book is also very informative about the development of tensions between Russia and Ukraine, outlining the steps since the break-up of the USSR that have lead to the current outrageous but predictable Russian aggression. The early part of the book which details how Putin and his cronies seized power first in St Petersburg and then Moscow, displacing Yeltsin and his chosen oligarchs, is told with meticulous and plausible detail. Whilst the Putin/ KGB playbook perhaps encounters more fertile ground in a society such as Russia, which has never known democracy, there seems little doubt that others in the West have watched and sought to emulate his methods and will continue to do so.