Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia.

AuthorKortava, David
PositionBrief article - Book review

PUTIN'S LABYRINTH: SPIES, MURDER, AND THE DARK HEART OF THE NEW RUSSIA

Steve LeVine

(New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2nd edition, 2009), 230 pages.

Informed by over a decade of reporting from the former Soviet Union, Putin's Labyrinth is a timely and intimate peek into the underworld of political violence in contemporary Russia. In this detailed chronicle of several high-profile murders "countenanced or at least tolerated by the Russian state," journalist Steve LeVine argues that the Russian government, by way of institutional neglect at the highest level, is complicit in an "epidemic of assassinations and bloodletting."

Prime Minister Putin's culpability lies in the "climate of impunity" that he has helped to foster. In business, politics and journalism, "violence can be permissible against those deemed to be outsiders." The examples considered range from the slaying of an acclaimed human rights activist to the Kremlin's negligence and outright malversation in the handling of the Nord-Ost hostage situation. They serve to corroborate LeVine's thesis that "in Putin's...

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