Rating: 
Summary: An amazing story
Review: This is a remarkable little book of questions and answers. If you read it, you will probably start to understand the enigma called Putin. Almost ten years ago the President of Russia Vladimir Putin left the KGB in the rank of a colonel. One might say that the KGB officer would not be the best person to head a new and democratic Russia. But Putin served in the foreign intelligence and that is the big difference. As he admits in the book, the foreign intelligence officers in the KGB due to many years they spent abroad, were the group most critical towards the Soviet system, because they were able to compare the living standards, economic growth etc.Soviet foreign intelligence as this type of organization in any other country used to hire the best people, whose tasks included gathering and analyzing information and feeding it back to Moscow. KGB officers saw very vividly the growing gap between the West and the East. Some people defected, but the majority honestly served to the hopeless cause and disintegrating, but their own country. Putin talks about his family in this book and the story is amazing, albeit not so unusual for a 50 year-old Russian man. His father served in a submarine before WW2, and went to the War as a volunteer. He was almost killed in encirclement. His wounds left him limping for the rest of his life. His mother Maria by miracle avoided death after fainting from hunger in the blockaded Leningrad, but fortunately she moaned and made people aware that she was still alive and was separated from the dead bodies. But the blockade took a life of their son. Vladimir Putin was the only survived child out of their three children. Life was tough after the war. They were poor. His father worked in a factory and his mother was a simple girl from the province. They lived for many years in a communal apartment in Leningrad, occupying one small room on the fifth floor and sharing the kitchen and facilities with two or three other families. Young Vladimir spent some time chasing rats with a stick in their staircase. Putin came from humble, decent, and hard-working family. His rise to the presidency and the speed of his ascendance is truly amazing considering his background. He is not and never been a professional politician, although he got a law degree from the Leningrad University. Political activism was never his passion, as it was with Stalin and other communist gangsters. It was not a quasi-religious passion as it was with Lenin. In fact Putin, who wares a little golden cross on his chest, had only two real passions: espionage (originally in a form of spy movies) and sport (judo). Given how apolitical and low-key he is, it is truly amazing that he left behind people, who eat, drink and sleep politics. One of Putin's favorite historic figures is Ludwig Erhard, who become famous for his pragmatic free-market philosophy in post war Germany. Russia seems to be tired of zealots, communist gangsters and political activists. For sure he is a professional spy, but fortunately he is not a politician. The emergence of Putin from the nowhere may be a first little sign of hope and Russia's recovery after one hundred years of nightmare and social engineering. Worth reading, although frankly I am not sure about translation. I read it in Russian and I am glad I did. Thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: Great biography of Russia's president
Review: Vladimir Putin's "First Person" is a biography in question and answer format. It gives a great insight into the man who is the leader of the largest country in the world. There are questions and answers from not only Putin himself, but also his old school teachers, KGB collegues and his wife and two daughters. Even so, this biography does not give a 'full picture' of the president as a person and much of his past (for example KGB) is not mentioned in great detail (that's why I took off a star) and does not give a deep insight as the book implies. This aside, and all considered, this is a good read and a good introduction to Pres. Putin.
Rating:
Summary: Great biography of Russia's president
Review: Vladimir Putin's "First Person" is a biography in question and answer format. It gives a great insight into the man who is the leader of the largest country in the world. There are questions and answers from not only Putin himself, but also his old school teachers, KGB collegues and his wife and two daughters. Even so, this biography does not give a 'full picture' of the president as a person and much of his past (for example KGB) is not mentioned in great detail (that's why I took off a star) and does not give a deep insight as the book implies. This aside, and all considered, this is a good read and a good introduction to Pres. Putin.
Rating:
Summary: Vladimir Putin - International Man of Mystery?
Review: Well, not any more ... there are many insights to be gained both on a personal and political level here ... I found it to be a very interesting book, which I enjoyed reading very much. I would certainly recommend it.
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