Putin's Wars
From Chechnya to Ukraine
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THE FINANICAL TIMES - BEST BOOKS OF 2022
'The prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly the right book at the right time.' - The Times
A history of how Putin and his conflicts have inexorably reshaped Russia, including his devastating invasion of Ukraine.
Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself.
But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers. This is an engrossing strategic overview of the Russian military and the successes and failures on the battlefield.
Thanks to Dr Galeotti's wide-ranging contacts throughout Russia, it is also peppered with anecdotes of military life, personal snapshots of conflicts, and an extraordinary collection of first-hand accounts from serving and retired Russian officers. Russia continues to dominate the news cycle throughout the Western world.
There is no better time to understand how and why Putin has involved his armed forces in a variety of conflicts for over two decades.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Global affairs analyst Galeotti (The Weaponisation of Everything) provides a well-sourced and sobering analysis of Vladimir Putin's military objectives. When Putin came to power in 2000, Galeotti writes, Russia's military was "scarcely functional." In short order, however, the armed forces were downsized, modernized, and trained to engage in diverse forms of combat. Victories in the Second Chechen War and the 2008 invasion of Georgia nevertheless exposed weaknesses, including poorly trained troops and neglected equipment; according to Galeotti, more than a quarter of the armored vehicles deployed to Georgia broke down before reaching the battlefield. In response, Putin reshuffled the High Command and installed a new defense minister, Anatolyi Serdyukov, who promptly sacked 200 generals, decommissioned aging arms, closed military schools, and reorganized the nationwide system of battle commands, emphasizing smaller brigades capable of moving swiftly into regional combat. With the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war in Syria in 2015, Russia became "a much leaner, more responsive and effective military," but many of those gains were squandered by Putin's "overreach" in Ukraine. Galeotti skillfully analyzes Russia's military-industrial complex, shedding valuable light on commanders' personality clashes and Putin's handling of them. This is an impeccable resource for those seeking context for the current crisis in Ukraine.
