Perhaps I should end as I began, with the words of that well-fed Presidential Administration staffer, spoken between bites of expensive boar cutlets at the White Rabbit restaurant. He recalled a story Putin himself would tell about his childhood in ruined Leningrad, when he and his friends would hunt the rats that plagued their block of flats. One day, having come upon an especially large one, he chased it up the stairs and down the hall and into a corner. What do cornered rats do? It turned and leapt at him, and a terrified young Putin fled.
‘Russia thinks it’s Putin, out hunting rats, but we’re actually the rat. Everyone fears us, but we’re just doing what comes naturally. Corner us, though, and we’ll turn.’ He paused, and then added, ‘Actually, that’s Putin – the big rat, the one willing to turn. But there’s always another one, somewhere in the shadows.’
So maybe, even as we look to a future Russia after Putin, that gives us another reason to talk about Putin. Because there could be another Putin, an even bigger one, waiting in the stairwell.
Professor Mark Galeotti is one of the foremost Russia-watchers today, who travels there regularly to teach, lecture, talk to his contacts, and generally watch the unfolding story of the Putin era. Based in London, he is Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague, having previously headed its Centre for European Security, and was before then Professor of Global Affairs at NYU. A prolific author on Russia and security affairs, he frequently acts as consultant to various government, commercial and law-enforcement agencies.
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Copyright © Mark Galeotti 2019
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First published by Ebury Press in 2019
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ISBN 9781473566026
