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'Great read': Clarita Carlos reviews book on Putin

Philippines | National

'Great read': Clarita Carlos reviews book on Putin

By Ellson Quismorio

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Wikipedia)

A lot of people find Russian President Vladimir Putin a very intriguing--if not fascinating--personality. Professor Clarita Carlos is no exception. Carlos, who currently serves as House Speaker Martin Romualdez's chief policy adviser on security and defense concerns, took to Facebook Sunday, June 4 to review a biography about the Russian leader, which she describes as a "great read". The book is the 143-page “Putin: How the West gets him wrong” by Professor Mark Galeotti. "This is one biography which I found to have successfully woven together the various factors and forces that may 'explain' the actions of a leader without necessarily delving into his cosmology," Carlos wrote. She said that Galeotti, a specialist in Russian affairs, "drew a very different Putin, demolishing the many myths that have grown around the man from the time he was Deputy Mayor of St Petersburg, to an uneventful KGB stint and finally being appointed Prime Minister and then President". "The personality cult that the West had regularly portrayed Putin seemed to find little support in the many many examples that the author cited, culled from probe interviews with key informants in the Kremlin and elsewhere," stated Carlos. Galeotti's analysis of Putin, she said, was "quite refreshing and truly truly instructive". Carlos is a former national security adviser.

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