Military and Society in Post-Soviet Russia by Stephen L. Webber , Jennifer G. Mathers (review)

Abstract

reviews 775 very first,he challenges the accuracy and utility of the term 'oligarchs' as the businesspeople in question have made no efforts to gain formal political power. At the same time, he has to accept that ithas become impossible to avoid, however much itneeds to be treatedwith caution. Beyond this, he explores whether they are canny entrepreneurs or corrupt asset-strippers, how they firstgot theirmoney, what they have done with it, and whether they are as much of a malign force inpolitics and the economy as their detractors suggest. His overall conclusions are that while their origins are varied (and certainly in some cases shadowy) they are 'clever, adaptable people who have at the very least restored to health and atmost transformed the sectors they are involved in' (p. 174). Although he clearly tries to be even-handed, Fortescue ultimately sees the oligarchs in a positive light.To him, the greater danger is that Putin or his successor swings either towards effective renationalization or the Latin American-style populist politics of dispossession. Instead, he argues that the government and people must 'recognize the rightof the oligarchs to exist and evolve' (p. 179) and wait for these personalized business empires to become 'normal' corporations over time and generations. This sounds perhaps a little optimistic, and given theYukos affair ? which Fortescue painstakingly dis sects inwhat is probably themost effective chapter in thisbook ? it seems equally unlikely that the oligarchs who rose under El'tsin's free-for-allwill be granted this license. In the final analysis, though, there is something a littleunsatisfying about this book. It is hard to fault the research, and Fortescue has a sure grip on the big picture as well as the finedetail (although his treatment on the siloviki, who emerge as the bad guys of this account, is a little lacking in nuance, too quickly dismissing them as opportunists and authoritarians to a man). Perhaps it is that this is also a strangely agnostic work ? too often rival theories are detailed in parallel but in the final analysis the author fails clearly to back one or the other. The writing is also often quite opaque, and the minutiae of taxation schemes and shareholder politics can become arcane and hard to follow. This is a shame, because the book tackles important issues and in a way and to a depth that few others have tried. OrganisedRussian & Eurasian CrimeResearchUnit Mark Galeotti Keele University Webber, Stephen L. and Mathers, Jennifer G. (eds).Military and Society in Post-Soviet Russia. Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2006. xviii + 277 pp. Figures. Tables. Notes. Glossary. Select bibliography. Index. ?60.00. Published in 2006, thisbook was actually written and compiled in 2004. On the whole, it examines a range of issues concerning the interaction of the Russian Armed Forces with Russian society since the demise of theUSSR in 1991.Thus, thebook covers such diverse topics as theportrayal of themilitary inpost-USSR Russian war films to the regional dimension inRussian military 776 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 reform. Unfortunately, of the eleven listed contributors to the volume, only one was based inRussia (Lev Gudkov, analysing the contemporary general image of theRussian Armed Forces in society), so thisbook isverymuch from aWestern perspective. This reviewer certainly is of the opinion that the book would have been more useful had the editors been able to track down a couple of other Russian specialists, either from the academic or political elite, able to supply us with theirviews on how contemporary Russian society views the country's Armed Forces or how the political /social role of the Armed Forces has changed since the collapse of Communism now over a decade ago. The compilation does provide useful material examining the public's attitude towards both Chechen wars (Mikhail Alekseyev); the economic dimension in the civil-military relationship over the past fifteen years (Julian Cooper); and the portrayal of the Russian Armed Forces in contemporary Russian film (David Gillespie). These chapters are both well-written and particularly illuminating, asking, as well as answering, a number of questions which should encourage others to pursue the issues raised in greater detail. Pavel Baev's contribution, analysing the regional dimension in the...