Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine

by Mark Galeotti

Overview

The Financial Times – Best books of 2022: Politics

"The prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly the right book at the right time." The Times

A new history of how Putin and his conflicts have inexorably reshaped Russia, including his devastating invasion of Ukraine.

Written by one of the world's leading experts on modern Russia, Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts into which Russia has plunged since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president. From the First and Second Chechen Wars to the military incursion into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, and the eventual full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mark Galeotti has created a vivid insight into the inner workings of the Kremlin.

Updated for this paperback edition to include both the aborted coup of June 2023 and a clear overview of how and why the Russian military has struggled in Ukraine, this is a thought-provoking history of how Putin and his wars have inexorably shaped Russia in the 21st century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472864451
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/06/2024
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	201,782
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Mark Galeotti is a scholar of Russian security affairs with a career spanning academia, government service and business, a prolific author and frequent media commentator. He heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy and is an Honorary Professor at University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies as well as holding fellowships with RUSI and the Institute of International Relations Prague. He is the author of over 25 books including A Short History of Russia (Penguin, 2021).

Table of Contents

Author's Note
List of Illustrations
List of Maps and Diagrams
Abbreviations
Cast of Characters
Chronology

1. Introduction

PART ONE: BEFORE PUTIN
2. Born in Chaos
3. A Military in Crisis
4. The First Chechen War
5. The Wars of Russian Assertion

PART TWO: ENTER PUTIN
6. Putin's Priorities
7. The Second Chechen War
8. Ivanov, the Initiator
9. Serdyukov, the Enforcer
10. Georgia, 2008 (1): Tbilisi's Move …
11. Georgia, 2008 (2): … Moscow's Counter
12. 'New Look' Army

PART THREE: THE NEW COLD WAR
13. Shoigu, the Rebuilder
14. Crimea, 2014
15. Donbas, 2014–
16. Lessons of the Donbas War
17. Syria, 2015– (1): The Unexpected Intervention
18. Syria, 2015– (2): Lessons of the Syrian Campaign

PART FOUR: REARMING RUSSIA
19. Rumble for Ruble
20. Armiya Rossii
21. The Sky is Russia's!
22. Contesting the Sea
23. Power Projection: Blue and Black Berets
24. The Spetsnaz
25. The Nuclear Backstop

PART FIVE: THE FUTURE
26. Political Warfare
27. New Generation Warfare
28. The Challenges of the Future
29. Ukraine 2022: Putin's Last War?
30. Conclusions: The Eurasian Sparta?
31. Ukraine 2023: A Dispatch on a War in Progress

Notes
Selected English-language Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

09/05/2022

Global affairs analyst Galeotti (The Weaponisation of Everything) provides a well-sourced and sobering analysis of Vladimir Putin’s military objectives. When Putin came to power in 2000, Galeotti writes, Russia’s military was “scarcely functional.” In short order, however, the armed forces were downsized, modernized, and trained to engage in diverse forms of combat. Victories in the Second Chechen War and the 2008 invasion of Georgia nevertheless exposed weaknesses, including poorly trained troops and neglected equipment; according to Galeotti, more than a quarter of the armored vehicles deployed to Georgia broke down before reaching the battlefield. In response, Putin reshuffled the High Command and installed a new defense minister, Anatolyi Serdyukov, who promptly sacked 200 generals, decommissioned aging arms, closed military schools, and reorganized the nationwide system of battle commands, emphasizing smaller brigades capable of moving swiftly into regional combat. With the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war in Syria in 2015, Russia became “a much leaner, more responsive and effective military,” but many of those gains were squandered by Putin’s “overreach” in Ukraine. Galeotti skillfully analyzes Russia’s military-industrial complex, shedding valuable light on commanders’ personality clashes and Putin’s handling of them. This is an impeccable resource for those seeking context for the current crisis in Ukraine. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

The prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly the right book at the right time.” —The Times

“Galeotti's work is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand current events in Ukraine.” —Gillian Tett, The Financial Times

“Putin's Wars is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Russia's military.” —Literary Review

“The definitive work on this subject to date.” —History of War

“Mark Galeotti is one of the most insightful and incisive analysts on Russia's past, present, and future. Russia's February 2022 expanded invasion of Ukraine tragically highlights the critical importance of understanding the connection between politics and war. Galeotti vividly shows how Russia has waged its wars... [and] how those wars shaped the country's politics and, in turn, how politics shaped Moscow's military campaigns.” —Joshua C. Huminski, Director, Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence and Global Affairs, Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress

“This is a vivid account of how Putin has used armed force during his time in power, culminating in the deadly war in Ukraine.” —Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London

“An accessible, lucid and vivid comprehensive contemporary account of the inner workings, logic and rationales of the central military pillar of Putinism. I unreservedly recommend this gem.” —Dr Graeme P. Herd, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

“Putin's Wars is Galeotti at his finest: writing that moves like a spy novel and enough information for the student or professional reader … An excellent and accessible contribution to the field for seasoned Russian observers and those interested in the larger sweep of how it all transpired.” —Dr Yuval Weber, Bren Chair of Russian Military and Political Strategy at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at the US Marine Corps University

“A persuasive, detailed case that Russia's deficiencies are more severe and more deeply rooted than many Western officials and pundits had detected” —New York Review of Books

“An impeccable resource for those seeking context for the current crisis in Ukraine.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/01/2022

Galeotti (A Short History of Russia) is a prolific writer about Russian security affairs. His latest assessment of the Ukraine campaign is that its overreach may set the Russian economy and military back for decades. In this book, he shows the way to put Vladimir Putin's military activities in perspective is to look at a map and two calendars. The map is of Russia, vast, sprawling, and with no defensible borders; it's been invaded many times. The first calendar chronicles Putin's rise to power, starting as a KGB apparatchik, becoming a fixer for St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and heading his country's Federal Security Service in 1998 before becoming Prime Minister and later acting president. He's held the reins of control ever since. The other map is of Russia's wars, from the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, through the failed campaign in Afghanistan (1979–89) and the botched Chechen War of 1994–96, to today's wars in Syria and the Ukraine. From the start, Putin's goal has been to build a functioning military and use it to establish Russia's regional dominance. VERDICT Primarily for scholars, but lay readers will find it comprehensible as well.—David Keymer

Library Journal