Andrew Monaghan

Very interesting book that also makes me wonder what is actually taking place today in the world.

First, if you look at the text and what author provides related to the Russian strategy planning and finding ways to handle future crisis, it is obvious that they were aware for a very long time that situation with international relations will degrade, and that in a dramatical manner, and they need to be ready to meet any contingency.

In other words, goals are preventing foreign influences, making country more resilient and less dependent from the 'enemy' states, more specifically West (that are more and more openly chosing confrontation), and building defense forces to protect one sovereignity and territorial integrity. When one takes into account that author also points out at the fight against corruption, more involvement of the society into policy making, and very decisive actions against those parts of government (local or federal) that are not doing their part, one has to ask oneself - why is this so alarming for the West? We are not talking about the old Communist regime (therefore no need for Western allergy reaction) but country that wants to keep itself functioning and prospering, basically same things that apply to every state and every nation.

For a long time I have been asking myself what did happen, what was the turning point, the critical event where relations between West and Russia went downhill. And unfortunately, over the time I came to conclusion that very survival of Russia post 1990's was a sin that West could not forgive. Unfortunately nothing else comes to mind, because all other statements, especially about Russia threatening their neighbors, is just mumbo-jumbo (which author also confirms by stating that Russia's strategy was about Russia and very isolationist and defensive). And I should say 'was', because after a long, long time Russia decided to make aggressive move after which West finally got what they wished for all this time - military force that proves to be a match in many ways, heavily armed neighbor to decades to come. Even if this was long term preparation, it definitely gave a lot of time for de-escalation (almost a full decade), but West just was not interested in that (which Holland and Merkel confirmed). So was this all just a big mistake by both parties? I do not think so. After all west has a lot of keen analysts like author of this book, so to say they weren't aware of possible consequence is very naive thing to think or say.

But lets get back to the book.

Author gives a very detailed and brief overview of the strategic development of Russia, from 1990's 'til 2017 (when book was published). All elements are covered, from state bodies (ministries, agencies) and their processes, economy, coordination between ministries and various industries, and finally the way strategy is planned for military industrial complex, security forces and the army.

Great plus is that author very clearly shows that V. Putin, although a central figure as a president and main engine behind the changes, is not a dictatorial figure as he is always portrayed in the mass media in the West. He is just one of the elements of the government structure, and together with others he is fighting to implement required changes. Only for this part book deserves five stars.

In a way that no longer surprises me, we are given few notes that seem to be unclear to everyone but the Western commentators:

- Switch to self sustainable economy and abolishing liberal economy and market - for author this is switch to less efficient economy. My question is how it can be efficient to be made part of the world in which you can be cutoff from resources and, as we can see, even financial means at the whim of third parties that have more muscle to force others to approve such a move? That is not efficiency, it is dependency and it should not be way any country should move towards. Is switch painful? Definitely. But is this the only way forward to keeping ones industry and capacity and not being 100% dependable from other parties? Definitely. This is what makes this move worthy.
- Author concludes that Russia's strategy was and will remain concetrated on Russia. Russians might have pessimistic view of international relations but they are concentrating on needs and high points of Russian security and development. So accent here is that they feel threatened and under pressure from the outside, confontational states that negate any of Russia's national interests in near abroad (as again Holland and Merkel confirmed), so they are very very wary of anyone at their border or using economic pressure against them. Author's comment is strange to say the least - in his view softening of Russia can be accelerated by more aggresive stance and rolling economic pressure or even increase presence of armed forces on the border. Now I am not international analyst but I tend to see societies as multi-cellular organisms (same, say as a human). If someone is in conflict with somebody else (or group of people) and that someone packs knives, boxers and maybe even a gun (and his antagonists are equipped in the same manner), I do not think (maybe this is something new in the social studies or psychology, i do not know) that relations between the said individual and opposing group can be made better by the given group making more pressure (and threats of violence). This usually makes more violence and usually very unexpected events that can escalate very quickly. But as I said, this is very common to Western commentators - for West, 'they' (the opposition) always have assumptions on 'our' (the West) aggressivness, totally not grounded in reality (becase 'we', the West, say it is not so), 'they' always have insecurities, while 'we' (the West) always make justfied actions because 'we' know we are endangered by 'them'. As I said, weird view on the world, but I guess coallitions with great destinies need to be always right.

All in all interesting book, with a very detailed view on the Russian government and planning. In light of current events, this makes the book very contemporary. Additional plus is great listing on books for further reading on the subject.

Recommended.… (más)