Putin's Wars - Herpen, Marcel H. Van

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Résumé :
This fully updated book offers the first systematic analysis of Putin's three wars, placing the Second Chechen War, the war with Georgia of 2008, and the war with Ukraine in their broader historical context. Drawing on extensive original Russian sources, Marcel H. Van Herpen analyzes in detail how Putin's wars were prepared and conducted, and why they led to allegations of war crimes and genocide. He shows how the conflicts functioned to consolidate and legitimate Putin's regime and explores how they were connected to a fourth, hidden, internal war waged by the Kremlin against the opposition. The author convincingly argues that the Kremlin-relying on the secret services, the Orthodox Church, the Kremlin youth Nashi, and the rehabilitated Cossacks-is preparing for an imperial revival, most recently in the form of a Eurasian Union. An essential book for understanding the dynamics of Putin's regime, this study digs deep into the Kremlin's secret long-term strategies. Readable and clearly argued, it makes a compelling case that Putin's regime emulates an established Russian paradigm in which empire building and despotic rule are mutually reinforcing. As the first comprehensive exploration of the historical antecedents and political continuity of the Kremlin's contemporary policies, Van Herpen's work will make a valuable contribution to the literature on post-Soviet Russia, and his arguments will stimulate a fascinating and vigorous debate....

Biographie:

Introduction

PART I: DESPOTISM AND THE QUEST FOR EMPIRE
1. Despotism and the Quest for Empire
2. Comparing Western and Russian Legitimation Theories for Empire
3. Putin and the End of Russian Empire Fatigue
4. Putin's Grand Design
5. The Eurasian Union: Putin's Newest Imperial Project

PART II: THE INTERNAL WAR: CONSOLIDATION OF POWER
6. Russia as a Pluralist One-Party State
7. Preaching the Ultranationalist Gospel: The Transformation of United Russia
8. The Nashi: Fascist Blackshirts or a New Komsomol?
9. Send in the Cossacks

PART III: THE WHEELS OF WAR
10. Three Lost Wars: From Afghanistan to the First Chechen War
11. The Mysterious Apartment Bombings: Detonator of the Second Chechen War
12. The Second Chechen War: Putin's War
13. The War with Georgia, Part I: A Premeditated Russian Aggression
14. The War with Georgia, Part II: Six Events Announcing the Kremlin's Preparation for War
15. The War with Georgia, Part III: The Propaganda War
16. Origins of the War in Ukraine
17. Russia's Hybrid War in Ukraine: Five Scenarios
18. 2022: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine