Masha Gessen tells the story of the reign of Vladimir Putin

The journalist Masha Gessen is a citizen of Russia - where he was born and now lives in Moscow - and the United States. His most recent book, "The Man Without a Face: The rise of Vladimir Putin, unlikely," is a scathing account of Putin's rule. Shortly thereafter, after the Russian elections in the fourth of March, in which Putin won a controversial six-year term, Gessen discusses women to send their rise to power, the use and abuse of this power and the possibilities for change. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

"The Man Without a Face" by Masha GessenQ.She wrote: Given the limited "Perhaps the strangest fact about Putin's rise to power, that people who exercise on the throne knew little more about him than you." know why so many people think it might be the answer to the prayer policy of the country?
A.It is not uncommon to see people what they want. In this case, the Russians wanted to see a new, young, dynamic company, leader in the world. Incumbent President Boris Yeltsin had been an embarrassment to the country and in memory of his former supporters. Putin, Yeltsin was certainly not: Actually I was younger, wearing well-cut suits and Europe did not have a drinking problem.He decided that the vast majority of Russians, and the leaders of the Western world and Western media ignore everything else - like the fact that he was flesh and blood of the KGB.
Q.Putin was born in Leningrad 1952a What was the time and place of their education, and the lives of their parents and the beliefs that you think is important to understand, now?
A.Here is a fact that Putin has hidden opinions: I was in the KGB, was born, his father had served in the secret police, and the boy was taken to dream of being a secret agent - and that's what happened, what he from school. Consequently, there was virtually no sign of his life before his appointment as prime minister of Russia in August 1999 - learned to make their own history. The story I chose to say is that hard of a road, a fighter, kid aggressive, vindictive and very soon after, a man who has trouble controlling their anger or neglect a fight.
Q.They move through a catalog of catastrophic events in recent history of Russia - the bombing of civilian buildings, elimination of political dissent, the deaths of journalists - and the blame largely at the feet of Putin. How much of what is really tested? Why is the classical presentation of Western Putin, although negative, less reprehensible than yours?
A.This is the Catch-22 systems closed, such as Putin Year: conclusive evidence must be obtained by the police, but it's the last thing that will happen as long as Putin is in power. No murders or terrorists in the past 12 years were examined.
However, there is at least one smoking gun in the murder of former FSB [Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation] agent Alexander Litvinenko died of polonium poisoning in London. This type of polonium occurs only in Russia, and its release must be approved at the highest levels of Russian government. And finally, is this: Putin led the country during the last 12 years, and for that reason alone, be personally responsible for the fact that dissidents threatened, attacked or killed on your watch.
Q.What do you think is best, what he did when he was blatantly Putin in power?
A.It is difficult to decide, so I'll go with fresh insult: the massive violations during the four presidential elections in March: closing the patent slip, the masses of the area moved into the district so they can vote several times and finally , tens of thousands of people in the provinces transported celebrate the victory of Putin than ten thousand armed police stood guard.
Q.There was a time when the tide in recent political history of Russia has threatened to change. Of all the events in that country since the fall of the Soviet Union, what do you think was the best opportunity for change that has escaped?
A.I think the biggest missed opportunity in the recent history of Russia before Putin. In 1996, Yeltsin and his people, faces a challenge Communist Gennady Zyuganov of the panic and rigged election. It was a breeze compared to the type of platform, it is now, but it sounded the death knell of Russian democracy. If Zyuganov had won fair and open elections, Russia would have some political setbacks, but nothing like what Putin has begun to have seen four years later.
Q.He heard the news before the election that an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Putin. How does that fit the facts stated in his book?
A.Russian blogs now is full of jokes about the story: Nobody, but nobody seems to think we have the news. This is how cynical we have become a people in the Putin era. Imagine that it is actually a conspiracy: Putin is the president who cried wolf.

Svenya GeneralovaMasha GessenQ.The comments of his book to have him as a brave and courageous.Do you feel safe living in Moscow? Do you think the left?
A.I thought about leaving, and even made plans to leave. The truth is that I will not. I love my home, my friends, my job, my life. And if Putin does not like me, you can trust.
Q."The Man Without a Face" ends with protests in December last year, and there are peaceful protests continued, but the image of his picture book is a disaster. What effect will the Putin era, the road to the world, protesters? How do you manage to let Putin portray this change?
A.The regime is dying. Of course this is because Putin would consider the protesters, or even, apparently, to negotiate with them. But then there is public outcry. The protesters met - or, more precisely, the direction - to other Russian citizens who want to live in an open and fair.
Putin's regime, like all these systems is a pyramid. And what events are, is the elimination of the lower levels of the pyramid. This happens when journalists from the state-controlled television in a favorable and accurate information about the protests to sneak. Or if the head of the state television station Yaroslavl wrote an open letter to his boss saying. "I took sick leave after the elections because the elections makes me sick" or if all members to visit the elections local Samara and St. Petersburg and tell the stories of his own pieces in the electoral fraud in the December parliamentary elections.

 

Very soon - very soon, I think - more bricks, the base of the pyramid will go, and bring down the entire building. It is similar to the Soviet Union ended, and the feeling in Moscow these days reminds of the time. There is hope and fear, and gained the hope of reducing time to time, but over time.