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Ep. 1: Rise of the Oligarch

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Ep. 1: Rise of the Oligarch

By: Misha Glenny
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The seeds of Putin's rise to power lie in a slightly unusual place: 1990s Moscow where, after 70 years of communism, "gangster capitalism" arrived.

Here we tell the story of how a young graduate student at The Institute of Controlled Sciences became one of the richest men in Russia and the Kremlin's Power Broke - Boris Berezovsky.

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I recommend this to anyone whom has an interest in Russia.

It highlights iconic moments which Insite further reading.

Overall happy a listener.

Bite size pieces to keep you interested.

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I was concerned about how this series would go. Politics, talking heads, blah blah blah. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. I listened to all 7 episodes today. Very human, you can picture what is happening s the story is told. Really helped me get my head around the man.

Outstanding series, concise and draws you in.

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Extremely well narrated, this grips you from the start. Download all the episodes to learn how Putin started, and how he got to where he is today. It seems that almost by accident he was selected, but once selected, his total ruthlessness and desire to cling on to power at all costs came into being.
Informative, fascinating............and depressing.

Gripping insight into one man's journey to power.

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This is a really great overview of the historical rise of Putin from 1999 till today. The journalist covers many angles & talk to many different people and it’s one of the best short historic podcast series I’ve heard.

Great overall overview of Putins rule

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This review covers all parts of the series.

This series starts out great. It gives you a comprehensible overview of the early years of Putin's reign, how he got into power, what moves he made to further his own agenda, and what he had to learn in order to become one of the biggest political players of our time... And then it skips ahead by about a decade, glosses over most of his actual time in office as both president and prime minister, and ends on some vague speculation about what's to come!

At the outset of the series, Misha Glenny promises to tell you all about these backroom deals that made Putin the power player he is today, as well as how he has ultimately become trapped by this power, but it mostly becomes a footnote in the larger scheme of things.

Even so, there's some great content to be found here, about how the oligarchs first exploited the post-Soviet power vacuum to build their fortunes, and then how they tried to install a puppet to run the country, and their later fights with this former puppet turned puppet-master. It's just a shame that they rush through so much of the later content, and sort of miss the landing in the end.

Overall though, I'd say it's worth a listen.

Great start, rushed ending.

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