THE role Vladimir Putin will play when he comes to the end of his term as President is still unsure. Whether the ex-spy who became an unlikely bureaucrat can quietly quit the corridors of power in the Kremlin does seem un
THE NEW COLD WAR by Edward Lucas
THE role Vladimir Putin will play when he comes to the end of his term as President is still unsure. Whether the ex-spy who became an unlikely bureaucrat can quietly quit the corridors of power in the Kremlin does seem unlikely. Putin has done much to shape the new Russia after he succeeded Boris Yeltsin - and was seen in Western eyes as a man who was living in age when the Cold War could be dispatched to history. But in Edward Lucas's new book, The New Cold War, there emerges a different story: one of a country that has recognised its vast riches through oil and gas deposits and is using economic power these days rather imitate the old days of the Communist regime. Lucas, who was Moscow bureau chief for The Economist, does not look so much at Putin's reign, but more on the changes in his country. It is, certainly, a book that helps us to understand the situation. ****
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