A post by Bruno Sergi, Author of Misinterpreting Modern Russia

I wrote Misinterpreting Modern Russia: Western Views of Putin and His Presidency, while I was at New York University during my summer teaching terms of 2005 and 2007. I was intent at the time to reinterpret the Russians, Russia, and Vladimir Putin more fairly than the West overall had done thus far. Today, I can confidently say that this new analysis is vastly more realistic and accurate as it captures Putin, Russia, and the Russians in a more objective light! Over the past quarter century, Russia and the West have witnessed the rapid changes experienced by the Russian people and Russian politics. In fact, Russia has been through a dynamic process since Mikhail Gorbachev’s notionally correct --but ill-managed-- perestroika and glasnost.

My new book is of timely importance, not least because president Putin had to stepped down following the appointment of a new president by the Russians on March 2008 (i.e., Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin confidant), but is now serving as Russia’s Prime Minister.

It is difficult to imagine a timelier book on Western-Russian relations, or even Western-Soviet relations in the Cold War period.  As mentioned, Putin is now Prime Minister, a post that is, in spite of everything, highly approved and rated by the ordinary Russians. This book thus represents an excellent opportunity to bridge the seemingly expanding gap between Western perceptions of Russian realities and the realities faced by Russia from the time of perestroika and glasnost, through the 1990s and Putin’s presidency.  It is also interesting to note that this book is being released at a time when the U.S., and possibly the Western world, are experiencing what might be the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The West has continually applied double standards and bias judgment on many world issues, but times today clearly call for reinterpreting not only the financial crises faced by such companies all over the world, but for reinterpreting Russia as well.

I hope to have accomplished the unnaturally noble task of being the first writer, observer, and chronicler of Russian realities and of Mr. Putin’s performance to actually get it right. The book aims to accurately convey the seeming contradictions between Western perceptions of Mr. Putin as just another would-be autocrat of all Russia and actual perceptions of the Russian leader from the Russians themselves, including a real appreciation of their institutions, policies, and actual performance in domestic and world affairs.  This is no small, or even great, accomplishment –but it is, I believe, a very thorny one! I have endeavored to observe Russian realities under one leader, Vladimir Putin, although I do compare him throughout the book with two of his predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.

The proposed interpretation may well be the unknown factor Western observers were looking for, primarily because Western looks at Soviet and Russian affairs have always overall lacked in trustworthiness.  Western news organizations, Western academic disciplines, and Western organizational and institutional time frame limitations and attention span do not, have not, and perhaps never will allow others to achieve the kind of nonstop, near year-by-year account of realities this book describes, analyzes, and contextualizes. The book therefore is willing to spend the time required for accurate observation of Mr. Putin’s Russian realities.

The positive accolades Mr. Putin has received from the Russian people, their acceptance and admiration of his achievements, and ultimately –yes— his expansion of democratic opportunity throughout Russia in the eyes of many if not most Russians, is categorized, explained, and finally legitimized by Western standards. In short, the book is the first to allow Western observational periods about Russia not to distort, distend, or alter Russia’s interpretation of itself at all levels of policy interpretation, not least among the Russians as well as non-westerners.  May one offer a strongly felt opinion that this book is a heroic effort by any measure, in light of Western double standards in the Western world.  If you aren’t surrounded by demagogy regarding Russia and Putin, and don’t fear being “unpatriotic with patriotism,” then please acknowledge Russia’s present time to be seen rationally as a watershed in Russian and world history.  Traditional western reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy interpretation regarding Russia, and now Putin or post-Putin and Russia, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, has reached unprecedented levels.  Blind faith in Western patriotism has proven more potent than truth when it comes to Russians, Russia, and how to make Russia a credible partner on the global scale.

Provocative in its commentary and conclusions, the book will inspire anyone who wants to read on key questions. Undeniably, Putin’s Kremlin has had positive results and made tactical mistakes. Misinterpreting Modern Russia provides an informed look at how and why benefits and drawbacks associated with this controversial Kremlin policy over the past eight years occurred. It is about both the Kremlin’s triumphs and failures, which are explained coherently around logical, fact-based arguments. Enjoy the read!

Bruno Sergi