Putin's Oil: The Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £3.15
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Putin's Oil: The Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.15, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Martin Sixsmith brings out all the political drama (and literary resonance) of the ongoing confrontation between Putin and the imprisoned entrepreneur Mikhail Khodorkovsky.' --Times Literary Supplement
'This history of the rise and fall of the Yukos company reads like a nineteenth century Russian novel in which titans battle for a nation's soul… We are grateful to Mr Sixsmith for the work he has done in telling this sordid story.' --Contemporary Review
'Martin Sixsmith, a former BBC journalist, picks his way through this battlefield - lucidly, insightfully, quickly - by following the trail of events that led to the fall of Khodorkovsky and his Yukos empire.' --European Voice
Martin Sixsmith's seductive blend of investigative journalism and contemporary history charts the rise and fall over nearly 20 years of Russia's oil giant Yukos and its main proprietor Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. --International Affairs
'This history of the rise and fall of the Yukos company reads like a nineteenth century Russian novel in which titans battle for a nation's soul… We are grateful to Mr Sixsmith for the work he has done in telling this sordid story.' --Contemporary Review
'Martin Sixsmith, a former BBC journalist, picks his way through this battlefield - lucidly, insightfully, quickly - by following the trail of events that led to the fall of Khodorkovsky and his Yukos empire.' --European Voice
Martin Sixsmith's seductive blend of investigative journalism and contemporary history charts the rise and fall over nearly 20 years of Russia's oil giant Yukos and its main proprietor Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. --International Affairs
Product Description
This title investigates Vladimir Putin's war for control of Russia's vast oil reserves, in particular Mikhail Khodorkovsky's oil firm, Yukos. "Putin's Oil" investigates the complex world of Kremlin politics, including conspiracies and conspiracy theories, allegations that Roman Abramovitch plotted with Putin to destroy Khodorkovsky, suspicions of betrayal and double agents in the Kremlin and in Yukos, murder charges against Khodorkovsky's partners, and the KGB defector who claims they were carried out by Kremlin agents. After the mysterious death in a helicopter crash of the Englishman who had taken over Yukos, the company's war against the Kremlin is now being waged by a troika of mild mannered Britons, pursued by Interpol arrest warrants and Moscow's fury. Khodorkovsky remains in a penal camp in far Eastern Siberia. Martin Sixsmith, former BBC Moscow Correspondent, has gained unprecedented access to many of the players in the drama. The resulting book is both a thriller and an analysis of the defining moments of Putin's presidency and their ongoing impact in Russian and world politics.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mr Khodorkovsky, the protagonist of the book, is a difficult and controversial man. Not, however, an impression you would get from this work of Martin Sixsmith, who has little but praise to pile upon the well-known oligarch. Truly, the man is intelligent, as well as enterprising -- he is also ruthless, has relied extensively on political clout as well as physical coercion, and all his movements towards openness and democracy have been accompanied by statements that "I'm doing it because it's profitable". One can, just about, discern these characteristics behind Sixsmith's prose, but only if one knows where to look. For an unprepared reader this will be a narration of a struggle between good and evil, plain and simple: the positive qualities of Khodorkovsky and his team are reiterated again and again, inconvenient facts, as well as facts that indicate that Khodorkovsky's success maybe isn't the result ONLY of his personal brilliance are mentioned only in passing. The page count gives some of the picture: a 100 pages are accorded to the growth of Menatep and acquisition of Yukos, to 18 years of Khodorkovsky's active and complicated business life and 200 pages to the 5 years following his arrest in 2003.
Truly, the man has suffered, unjustly, at the hands of a cruel, insecure and greedy regime, and its leaders. This should not lead one to make him into a saint, which in his early years he was clearly not. Read Sixsmith as a spin-master's laudation of a sympathetic businessman, but do not rely on it for a balanced factual account. Not that you are in much of a danger of such a mistake: the characteristic style of the prose makes the genre of the book quite clear.
Truly, the man has suffered, unjustly, at the hands of a cruel, insecure and greedy regime, and its leaders. This should not lead one to make him into a saint, which in his early years he was clearly not. Read Sixsmith as a spin-master's laudation of a sympathetic businessman, but do not rely on it for a balanced factual account. Not that you are in much of a danger of such a mistake: the characteristic style of the prose makes the genre of the book quite clear.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book because I was interested in the subject. Buying it was a mistake which I regret - it is the opposite of the cliche "I could not put it down." The book is designed in chapters that appear to have been written at different times with no reference to other chapters - thus repetition particularly in the first 170 pages is both long winded, frequent and boring. The last 140 pages is marginally more intersting than the first 170 pages because that's when the story picks up.
This book needs an editor, none appears to have been used, to remove the over use of adjectives and adverbs and to get the writer to concentrate on his story/subject not immaterial details e.g. the style and shape of a judges glasses - who cares?.
This book needs an editor, none appears to have been used, to remove the over use of adjectives and adverbs and to get the writer to concentrate on his story/subject not immaterial details e.g. the style and shape of a judges glasses - who cares?.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a great book by Martin Sixsmith for those who are, and have always been, intrigued by Russia and it's oligarchs. How did the oligarchs acquire such enormous wealth ? why did Yukos (once Russia's biggest company) collapse and vanish ? why have some oligarchs settled in Britain ?
It's not just "Putin's Oil" we have in this book, it's much, much more. Sixsmith provides a superb insight into the machinations of the Kremlin and the stellar rise from virtually nothing of the head of Yukos - Mikhail Khordokosvky - whose burning ambitions led to his eventual downfall. And for those who never quite understood why Putin is still in power - you will, when you read this book.
It's not just "Putin's Oil" we have in this book, it's much, much more. Sixsmith provides a superb insight into the machinations of the Kremlin and the stellar rise from virtually nothing of the head of Yukos - Mikhail Khordokosvky - whose burning ambitions led to his eventual downfall. And for those who never quite understood why Putin is still in power - you will, when you read this book.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A journalistic, but commendable attempt at a notoriously complex...
Sixsmith's book clearly could have done with further editing and streamlining, especially as regards the chronology of the Yukos affair. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Sanders Paul
Excellent read - could not put it down!
The reason I bought this book was because I have been intrigued by Mikhail Kodorkovski's story for some time and I found this book a really interesting insight into the whole Yukos... Read more
Published 3 months ago by SL 9580
Putin's Oil; The Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia
This book is about the power struggle between two strong-minded compatriots of Russia. Martin Sixsmith has written an excellent account of the " New Era" in Russia, beginning with... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. Rylla Dragan
An Honourable Man
This book relates the story of an honourable man, and how it came about that he was defeated and lost everything because he was hated and feared by the leader of a major world... Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2010 by Mr. J. Putley
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
