About the book: 2012 / If Russia survives the impending global cataclysm, it is possible that our distant descendants will call V.V. Putin as the “Savior of the Fatherland”, who, having seized power from the shaking hands of “Tsar Boris”, was able to accomplish the impossible: stop the Troubles and the collapse of the country, recreate the “vertical of control”, excommunicate Russia’s sworn enemies from the Kremlin, establish, albeit thin, but still peace in Caucasus, ensure economic growth and actually revive the State from the ashes. Another question is whether this is Putin’s merit - or just a happy coincidence? (As the “Reds” sarcastically say: if we had sold oil to the USSR at the current price, we would have lived under communism a long time ago.) Did he make full use of the unique chance given by fate – or could he have done much more? Why didn’t you curb corruption and bureaucratic lawlessness? Did he raise Russia from its knees - or, on the contrary, “hit its face in the dirt”, turning it into a “raw materials appendage” of the West? Has Putin’s “sovereign democracy” degenerated into a new Stagnation? And, most importantly, does the current prime minister have a political future - or has his time already passed? Answering the most pressing questions of modern history, not only as the patriarch of Russian politics, but also a world-famous economist, Ruslan Khasbulatov assesses the past decade “without anger or partiality” , without hushing up victories and achievements, without hiding failures and disasters, passing a fair verdict on the controversial Putin era and paying tribute to its creator.