Catherine Belton
Author of Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
About the Author
Works by Catherine Belton
Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West (2020) 775 copies, 17 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1973
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- financial journalist
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Moscow, Russian Federation
London, England, UK - Map Location
- UK
Members
Reviews
The full scale of the corruption of the Putin regime will likely never be known, but if it was even half of what Catherine Belton lays out in Putin's People, it would be frightening. The broad outlines of what Belton covers here—how the weaknesses of the Yeltsin administration allowed for the rise of first the oligarchs and then Putin and his KGB cronies—won't be hugely new to anyone who's got a passing familiarity with recent Russian history.
But Belton—a longtime business show more journalist—excels at laying out the labyrinthine financial schemes that have siphoned billions out of the Russian economy and turns a sharp light on the men (and it's mostly men) whom such doings have enriched. This involves both a close look at Russia and at the Western financiers (mostly in London and New York) and politicians who are fine with making money and aren't too bothered about the source of it. (There's a whole chapter in here on Trump.) Belton also makes a fairly convincing case that Putin's KGB past isn't just important as something formative of his worldview but that it's the key to understanding his whole regime: that Russia is now essentially a state run by a group of siloviki or former KGB officers who are contemporaries of Putin's. These siloviki are both incredibly greedy and utterly hostile to the West. Putin is sketched here not as some charismatic puppetmaster but as a capable, amoral leader of his cadre of supporters.
The number of billionaires who have sued Catherine Belton for defamation as a result of this book may make one wonder just how close to the truth of it all she may have come. show less
But Belton—a longtime business show more journalist—excels at laying out the labyrinthine financial schemes that have siphoned billions out of the Russian economy and turns a sharp light on the men (and it's mostly men) whom such doings have enriched. This involves both a close look at Russia and at the Western financiers (mostly in London and New York) and politicians who are fine with making money and aren't too bothered about the source of it. (There's a whole chapter in here on Trump.) Belton also makes a fairly convincing case that Putin's KGB past isn't just important as something formative of his worldview but that it's the key to understanding his whole regime: that Russia is now essentially a state run by a group of siloviki or former KGB officers who are contemporaries of Putin's. These siloviki are both incredibly greedy and utterly hostile to the West. Putin is sketched here not as some charismatic puppetmaster but as a capable, amoral leader of his cadre of supporters.
The number of billionaires who have sued Catherine Belton for defamation as a result of this book may make one wonder just how close to the truth of it all she may have come. show less
This history reads as prelude to Russia's 2022 war with Ukraine. It tells the story of an ex-KGB agent and his ex-Soviet professionals with a chekist mind-set influencing Russia's development to the dangerous pariah state we now see. Over the years, building on oligarchy constructed in the Yeltsin era, Putin oversees extraction of something like a trillion dollars of wealth into the pockets of a kleptocracy. Looking back to the annexation of Crimea and a series of questionable actions show more including apparent staged terrorist attacks on its own citizens, the author seems to imply after color revolutions and being in power too long, Putin's hold on Russia may be nearing an end:
At least to me, such cracks don't seem to be emerging as I write. Maybe a sudden catastrophic collapse as happened to the USSR?
Most of the personages in the Putin constellation are not going to stick with me; they all end up in a sock labeled "someone-ov"... Interesting is the details of Russian support for Trump and using him (and other real estate opportunities) for money laundering as well as a political pawn. There is also a fair amount on Roman Abramovich and how he appears to be an example of oligarch-as-pawn. What I mean by that was explained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a HARDtalk interview "Making an enemy of Putin" where Stephen Sackur spoke to the exiled Russian businessman 22 April 2022 and pointed out that what we call "oligarchs" are just Putin's agents without actual policy-making roles. show less
...Putin and his security men took the warning signs seriously. Putin would soon be running into another constitutional limit on his hold on power: this time in 2024 – the end of his second consecutive term as president since his return in 2012 – when the constitution dictated he step down. Increasing uncertainty over who would replace him was already deepening infighting among the elite, and Putin’s people understood all too acutely the dangers of any transfer of power. They’d seen the jeopardy the Yeltsin Family faced as it entered the final year of Yeltsin’s rule. And with each year that passed of Putin’s own twenty-year rule, the potential threats he – or any of his security men – could personally face went far beyond anything that had confronted the Yeltsin Family. Any handover, even within the ruling elite, was fraught with peril. There were the apartment bombings, the Dubrovka theatre siege, the handling of the Beslan terror attack, the takedown of Russia’s one-time richest man, and then the subversion of the country’s legal system and economy, and the hundreds of billions of dollars they’d seized command of as they shored up their own power and then projected it abroad. There was no telling where a backlash might lead. The lengths they’d gone to to forge their own fortress of power had dragged Putin and his security men so deeply into a web of compromise and criminality that the only way to secure their position was to find a way to prolong Putin’s rule – or at the very least a way to drag out the transition.
At least to me, such cracks don't seem to be emerging as I write. Maybe a sudden catastrophic collapse as happened to the USSR?
Most of the personages in the Putin constellation are not going to stick with me; they all end up in a sock labeled "someone-ov"... Interesting is the details of Russian support for Trump and using him (and other real estate opportunities) for money laundering as well as a political pawn. There is also a fair amount on Roman Abramovich and how he appears to be an example of oligarch-as-pawn. What I mean by that was explained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a HARDtalk interview "Making an enemy of Putin" where Stephen Sackur spoke to the exiled Russian businessman 22 April 2022 and pointed out that what we call "oligarchs" are just Putin's agents without actual policy-making roles. show less
I nearly stopped reading this book during the first few chapters (covering Putin’s time in Dresden), which are full of far-fetched conspiracy theories and scarcely visibly “evidence” trails. It’s a lot of off-hand comments about “visits to Moscow,” and reading deep meaning into the shadows that fall across interviewee’s faces—lots of “it might be that...” and “Putin probably would have....” What was almost the final straw was her absurd suggestion that Dresden’s show more complete insignificance is what’s so important about his time there. It’s boilerplate conspiracy-theory rhetoric, and if the rest of the book had depended on it much, I would have stopped reading.
Fortunately, once she gets into Putin’s entry into the Kremlin and quick rise to the premiership, the rhetoric settles down. The author sticks a little more closely to established facts (though she does allow herself the occasional flight of unsupported fantasy). At this point her real thesis also starts to emerge, and it’s one worth considering: Basically, that KGB types had managed to carve out a lot of power and resources as they watched the Soviet Union fall around them, and that it was their urge to protect these things which really led to Putin’s rise. “Ultimately, when it came, the collapse had been an inside job.” It may not be the entire, precise truth, but there does seem to be a lot of truth in it. I think she downplays Putin’s own will to power, and his tactical political skill, a bit too much. But there are aspects of his presidency that make more sense if you realize that he doesn’t have a free hand to do whatever he wishes, and Belton paints one reasonable picture to explain why that is.
I should note: I was also concerned when I saw the pictures of Trump and the references to him in the blurb. It’s pretty clear that he was never an active agent on Russia’s (or Putin’s) behalf, and any insinuation otherwise would have been just more conspiratorial whackadoodle. Fortunately, she doesn’t tread far into that realm; she sticks pretty firmly to the notion that Trump was an incompetent, unaware dupe (what Russians typically call a “useful idiot”) who, in the course of laundering money and kissing up, did manage to do some things that the Kremlin enjoyed. And, of course, that in their broad efforts to support corruption and disorder in Western democracy, the Kremlin invested some time and effort to promote Trump (who firmly represents both those things).
Overall, it’s a decent read if you have kind of an intermediate-level understanding of Russian national and international politics. It shouldn’t be anyone’s first book on the subject, because you’re going to learn a lot of things that just ain’t so. But if you are able to occasionally shake your head and ignore some obvious nonsense, there is a lot of meat on this book’s bones. show less
Fortunately, once she gets into Putin’s entry into the Kremlin and quick rise to the premiership, the rhetoric settles down. The author sticks a little more closely to established facts (though she does allow herself the occasional flight of unsupported fantasy). At this point her real thesis also starts to emerge, and it’s one worth considering: Basically, that KGB types had managed to carve out a lot of power and resources as they watched the Soviet Union fall around them, and that it was their urge to protect these things which really led to Putin’s rise. “Ultimately, when it came, the collapse had been an inside job.” It may not be the entire, precise truth, but there does seem to be a lot of truth in it. I think she downplays Putin’s own will to power, and his tactical political skill, a bit too much. But there are aspects of his presidency that make more sense if you realize that he doesn’t have a free hand to do whatever he wishes, and Belton paints one reasonable picture to explain why that is.
I should note: I was also concerned when I saw the pictures of Trump and the references to him in the blurb. It’s pretty clear that he was never an active agent on Russia’s (or Putin’s) behalf, and any insinuation otherwise would have been just more conspiratorial whackadoodle. Fortunately, she doesn’t tread far into that realm; she sticks pretty firmly to the notion that Trump was an incompetent, unaware dupe (what Russians typically call a “useful idiot”) who, in the course of laundering money and kissing up, did manage to do some things that the Kremlin enjoyed. And, of course, that in their broad efforts to support corruption and disorder in Western democracy, the Kremlin invested some time and effort to promote Trump (who firmly represents both those things).
Overall, it’s a decent read if you have kind of an intermediate-level understanding of Russian national and international politics. It shouldn’t be anyone’s first book on the subject, because you’re going to learn a lot of things that just ain’t so. But if you are able to occasionally shake your head and ignore some obvious nonsense, there is a lot of meat on this book’s bones. show less
Putin's People: A Times Book of the Year 2021 – The Story of Russia’s History and Politics by Catherine Belton
This book tells the story of how Russia became a state run by a mafia. After a hesitant start where some forces of opposition still had to be respected, Putin started killing and jailing his enemies and took the country's riches for himself, so that he could distribute them as he pleases. His deliberate and nefarious corruption of Russian state institutions made sure that honest people could not have a successful career either in Russian business or in its judiciary. It is depressing to read show more how many billions Putin's KGB circle has expropriated. Imagine how Russia could have prospered if this wealth had been broadly shared. The eagerness of English and Swiss firms to provide services for this mafia speaks to their weak moral backbone. One can only hope that the present war has revealed the true nature of the Russian regime even to these dimwits.
It must have taken years to assemble all the information presented in this book and the author should be commended not only for the amount of investigative work, but also for her bravery. I did at times hope - especially toward the end of the book - that she would take a step back from the deeds of specific persons and instead provide some general analysis of Russian corruption. But it's not like the overall picture is unclear: a dictatorship rewards loyalty and ruthlessness, and money is money to western bankers. Aside from amassing power and wealth, reversing the disintegration of the Soviet Union and weakening the west are the only things this old KGB agent cares about. As the author writes toward the end of the book, his endgame must be leadership for life - mafia leaders who let go of power can only face punishment or death. show less
It must have taken years to assemble all the information presented in this book and the author should be commended not only for the amount of investigative work, but also for her bravery. I did at times hope - especially toward the end of the book - that she would take a step back from the deeds of specific persons and instead provide some general analysis of Russian corruption. But it's not like the overall picture is unclear: a dictatorship rewards loyalty and ruthlessness, and money is money to western bankers. Aside from amassing power and wealth, reversing the disintegration of the Soviet Union and weakening the west are the only things this old KGB agent cares about. As the author writes toward the end of the book, his endgame must be leadership for life - mafia leaders who let go of power can only face punishment or death. show less
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