Bettie's Books

Read from October 11, 2012 to August 24, 2013

As I haven't read his biography I am not in the best seat to judge whether the refutations made by Gessen hold commonsense perspective. What is easy to glean is that Putin is a foul man, a squirmy deflector of questions, a killer and a climber. Whoever mentioned 'Stalin: the Sequel' down there in all the reviews (too lazy to trawl through again) seems to be right when it comes to mindset.

No wonder GW Shrub, Burlesqueoni and Spitoon looked to be having so much fun when they met, they were, and at humanity's expense.

That said, it is time to highlight this book and one word comes up 'subjective'. This is written from the anti Putin camp, and the narrator (I listened to the audio book) delivered in a cracked voice that at times descended to whinge tone. So read not listen to this book, it is eye-opening, yet also read what this is refuting/endorsing i.e. the bloke's take on things: 'First Person'.

The fact that Putin wants everyone to be aware that he is a thug from boyhood who came to the stage through KGB and various machinations speaks volumes about his personality.

3* to author
2* to narrator
4* for eye-opening
1* and a 'Room 101' sticker to Russian Federation for allowing Putin full rein.

so take that as a 3* overall