'A solid study of the Putin political regime, emphasizing the structural tensions between a highly effective authoritarian political machine and a governmental system that cannot effectively manage the modernization of post-Communist Russia.'
Russian Review
'A brilliantly textured portrait and fiercely argued expose of the troubled and troubling political condition of Putin's Russia. Paradoxically, as Mendras lucidly explains, the ... Read moreRussian state abuses its citizens precisely because it is too weak to control itself. ... the most stimulating work yet published on the origins and evolution of post-communist Russian politics.'
Stephen Holmes, Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
'This is a lucid, fresh and shrewd history of the failure to modernize the old Soviet state by the new Russian elite. It is particularly timely in the light of the current crisis in the Russian political system.'
Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor of War Studies and Vice-Principal, King's College London
'Marie Mendras fine insights into Russia's trajectory encompass the roots of personalised power, the evolution of society, the political dynamics of the leadership, the paradoxes and vulnerabilities of the managed democracies and bureaucratic capitalism and the resurgence of aggressiveness in Russian foreign policy. Russian Politics: the Paradox of a Weak State is a first-rate, compelling, and indispensable contribution on one of the most important countries in the world at the start of a dramatic search for its identity.'
Lilia Shevtsova, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of Russia: Lost in Transition
'At last, a serious scholar has confronted the fallacy that Russia is condemned to autocracy. If you look carefully, argues Mendras, you will see that attitudes are evolving and that the potential for a civil society does exist. Now it is up to the Russians. Yes, to that.'
Susan Richards, Open Democracy and author, Lost and Found in Russia
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