VLADIMIR PUTIN The Man Without a Face_

 I finished this book about a year ago and at the time I finished it I absolutely loved it. I still think it was really good and I really like Gessen but I feel like it might have missed the mark in a couple of places. Primarily, I think it gives Putin too much direct power, don't get me wrong, Putin is very powerful but he doesn't wield absolute power over Russia. In the West, it's easy to attribute every bad thing that happens in Russia on Putin, and this book reinforces this notion, but I think this is sloppy and ignores the greater intricacies of the patronal network Putin has crafted. Oftentimes, players in Putin's network will act in a way that they believe will impress the boss without receiving direct approval from the Kremlin. The assassination of Boris Nemstov is a good example of this in my opinion. Nemstov was certainly a thorn in the side of Putin, and the Kremlin's rhetoric might have been seen as tacit approval but assassination orders most likely flowed from Kadyrov, without the consent of the Kremlin, as a result of Kadyrov's feud with Nemstov. I like Mark Galeotti's take here: "Sometimes, it might be the Kremlin, but more likely it is the result of some private feud... people die not because Putin wants them dead, but because some other powerful figure does, and Putin doesn't care enough to stop them." (We Need to Talk About Putin, pp.117)