Description
An examination of Vladimir Putin’s struggle to control Russia’s valuable stores of oil, through political maneuvering, conspiracy, deception, betrayal, and espionage — by one of the world’s leading experts on contemporary Russia
Putin’s Oil is the story of Russia’s energy wars and their consequences for Moscow and the world. The struggle to control the country’s oil wealth sparked a titanic conflict between Vladimir Putin and private business that changed the political course of the nation.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch owner of the country’s biggest oil firm, Yukos, was the richest and one of the most powerful men in Russia. But in October 2003, President Putin sent machine gun carrying troops to intercept his plane on a Siberian airfield and haul him back to Moscow in handcuffs. Putin had flexed his political might, but Khodorkovsky held the key to Russia’s economy with control over a vast part of its oil resources. Now the two men were at war — Putin wanted the oil back, and Khodorkovsky wanted to be president. In the months before his arrest, Khodorkovsky had bought into nearly every party in Russia’s parliament and was talking of a bid for power. He had begun negotiations to sell Yukos and its oil to American interests, and in a stormy confrontation in the Kremlin he had insulted Putin and accused him of corruption. Putin knew that crushing Khodorkovsky would make him look like a tyrant and scare away Western investors, but he also knew that oil was crucial for his country’s future. Later, he would use it as a means to blackmail other states, and in the 2008 elections he would ensure his continuing hold over Russian politics.
Putin’s Oil investigates the complex world of Kremlin politics, with its conspiracies and conspiracy theories – allegations that Roman Abramovich plotted with Putin to destroy Khodorkovsky; suspicions of betrayal and double agents in the Kremlin and in Yukos; murder charges against Khodorkovsky’s partners, and the KGB defector who claims they were carried out by Kremlin agents. The Englishman who took over Yukos after Khodorkovsky’s banishment to a penal camp in far Eastern Siberia died a mysterious death in a helicopter crash. The company’s war against the Kremlin is now being waged by a troika of mild mannered Britons, pursued by Interpol arrest warrants and Moscow’s fury.
Martin Sixsmith, former BBC Moscow Correspondent, has gained unprecedented access to many of the players in the drama. The resulting book is both a thriller and an analysis of the defining moments of Putin’s presidency and their ongoing impact in Russian and world politics.
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART ONE
Chapter 1. Flight to the East
Chapter 2. Into Siberia
Chapter 3. “Put Down Your Guns!”
PART TWO
Chapter 4. Boy from the Komsomol
Chapter 5. Gathering the Team
Chapter 6. Computers and Banks
Chapter 7. August 1991
Chapter 8. Sale of the Century?
Chapter 9. Consolidating the Gains
PART THREE
Chapter 10. New man in the Kremlin
Chapter 11. Buying up the Duma?
Chapter 12. Igor Sechin and the ‘Strongmen’
Chapter 13. Showdown in the Kremlin
Chapter 14. Looking for Trouble
Chapter 15. Pipelines and Provocation
Chapter 16. Open Russia
Chapter 17. Friends in the West
PART FOUR
Chapter 18. The Family and the Siloviki
Chapter 19. More Arrests
Chapter 20. Yukos and the Struggle for Russia
Chapter 21. A Kremlin Double Cross?
Chapter 22. Exile or Jail
Chapter 23. Americans in Town
Chapter 24. The Exxon Gaffe
Chapter 25. A Final Plea?
Chapter 26. Arrest in Siberia
PART FIVE
Chapter 27. Counting the Cost
Chapter 28. Trying to Stay Afloat
Chapter 29. The Abramovich Connection
Chapter 30. The Kremlin Explains
Chapter 31. Fight or Flight
Chapter 32. Khodorkovsky Shunned
PART SIX
Chapter 33. “Just like Al Capone”
Chapter 34. Justice on Trial
Chapter 35. The Murder Business
Chapter 36. The Chechen Connection
Chapter 37. Hostages?
Chapter 38. In the Camps
Chapter 39. Prophet in a Prison Cell
Chapter 40. A battle of Titans
PART SEVEN.
Chapter 41. The UK Connection
Chapter 42. The British Troika
Chapter 43. A Canadian Gambit
Chapter 44. The Brits Bite Back.
Chapter 45. Cashing in the Profits
Chapter 46. The Startled Accountants
Chapter 47. Traitors in the Ranks?
Chapter 48. Hope
Chapter 49. Hope Abandoned
Chapter 50. Light at the End of a Disaster?
Author(s)
Martin Sixsmith, Martin Sixsmith is a journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He began working at the BBC in 1980 as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Moscow during the end of the Cold War, the era of Perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1997, he went to work for the government of Tony Blair as Director of Communications and Press Secretary to Harriet Harman and then to Alistair Darling. He then served as Director of Communication at the Department for Transport, Local Government, and the Regions.
Sixsmith is the author of two political novels, Spin and I Heard Lenin Laugh. He has also published an account of the Litvinenko murder, The Litvinenko File, and made a documentary film in 2008 exploring the legacy of the KGB in today's Russia and the FSB.
Reviews
"A bleak and well-researched look at the crooked roots of the Kremlin's energy empire"
-Edward Lucas, Central & Eastern Europe Correspondent for The Economist, author of The New Cold War
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"All the drama of a Hollywood thriller, but this is a chilling real life story – the unfinished battle for oil and political power in Russia. This meticulously researched and vividly told story is a must read for anyone who wants to understand today’s Russia – a world where politics and big business form a deadly cocktail."
-Angus Roxburgh, former Sunday Times Moscow correspondent and author of The Second Russian Revolution
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"This is a penetrating inside look at the machinations in Russia’s most crucial sector. Sixsmith has obtained unprecedented access to the players, inside the Kremlin and out, and his account of the dealings and dirty work up the chain of command to the President’s office is both fascinating and appalling." --Don Murray, former CBC Moscow bureau chief and author of A Democracy of Despots
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