With Russian troops pouring over the border into Ukraine’s supposed “breakaway republics” and the West unleashing a barrage of punitive economic sanctions, it may be tempting to think that the U.S. release of Darryl Cunningham’s graphic biography, Putin’s Russia, couldn’t be more timely.
After a brief survey of national and international headlines from the past 5-10 years, however, it becomes clear pretty quickly that the same basic argument could’ve been made dozens of times in the recent past. American attention spans may be notoriously short, but Vladimir Putin has mastered the long game. Putin has been preparing for this very moment since the day Ukraine first announced its independence.
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Subtitled somewhat narrowly as The Rise of a Dictator, Cunningham’s book takes a sweeping, comprehensive view of the despot’s personal history and the events that have shaped him from his days as a schoolyard bully who would “fight ferociously, biting and scratching, using any dirty method to take vengeance on anyone who attempted to humiliate him” to the wars in Chechnya and Crimea, his continuing crackdown on human rights, the election of Donald Trump, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Cunningham refrains from sensationalizing events or over-dramatizing his subject. Rather, supported by a lengthy and detailed list of sources, he simply lays out the facts, inviting the reader to make the appropriate inferences and fill in the blanks.
Granted, at first glance, the book might appear text heavy. Visually, the author/illustrator’s often sizable blocks of prose seem to outweigh the accompanying illustrations. Balanced by Cunningham’s compelling imagery and intuitive layouts, however, the reader experience feels exquisitely efficient and immersive—an organic blend of words and pictures that drive the story forward while detailing key pieces of information.
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Captivating script and brilliant line work aside, the most alluring component of Cunningham’s work may be his pitch-perfect colors. From the dull gray of Putin’s early career—already fraught with corruption—to the melancholy blue of a hospital room and horrific blood reds that accelerate throughout the book as Putin continues to tighten his grip on the Russian people, every color illuminates and underscores the story. The body count is shockingly high, but Cunningham treats each victim with dignity and respect, even naming specific passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that was shot down over Ukraine.
With an astute, insightful mixture of hard facts and engaging art, Cunningham delivers a page-turner that keeps things simple, but never simplistic. As he’s already shown in his six previous widely acclaimed graphic explainers, Cunningham voice is clear, concise, and wholly devoid personal opinion. Putin’s Russia succeeds in objectively exposing Putin as the manipulative, corrupt, ludicrously wealthy, murderous dictator that he is. In the words of exiled Russian banker Sergei Pugachev, “Everything that belongs to the territory of the Russian Federation, Putin considers to be his.” And he’s sure as hell not afraid to jail, shoot, poison, or disappear anyone who stands in his way.
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If you don’t know much about Putin, his KGB background, his rise to power, and his outsized influence on world events, this book is an outstanding primer. If you know more than the average reader, Cunningham’s unflinching reportage will further illuminate how this authoritarian tyrant has consolidated his power by continually preying on his supporters’ homophobic, nationalistic toxic masculinity.
Contrary to what certain political pundits would have you believe, there is nothing redeeming about this opportunistic thug. As Cunningham concludes: “He’s essentially a gangster and not a particularly smart one. We need to demythologize Putin if we are to beat him.” By understanding where he came from, we can see where he’s trying to go.
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