Putin's progress

by Peter Truscott

"Vladimir Putin seemed to have come from nowhere when he succeeded the ailing and incompetent Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia in March 2000. It was as if he had taken the Kremlin by stealth - perhaps, it was whispered, using the skills he acquired as a senior agent in the KGB." "In fact, as Peter Truscott shows in this book, Putin's rise to prominence owes more to a combination of canny manoeuvring and blat, the traditional Russian system of cronyism and patronage. A fiercely loyal citizen of St. Petersburg, from a poor but stable background, he has throughout his life maintained close contacts with key officials in that city. And his links with the powerful Yeltsin clan made him the heir apparent as his predecessor's health declined - especially as he had agreed to grant Yeltsin immunity from prosecution for corruption." "Putin inherited a country still struggling to come to terms with its painful transition from communism to something resembling democracy. His early ambitions to