Strana,” originally published in Kommersant, Jan. 27, 2006. http://www.liberal.ru/anons/312. Accessed July 17, 2011.
Page 250 he fired his cabinet: “Kasyanov, Mikhail,” unsigned Lentapedia dossier. http://lenta.ru/lib/14159606/full.htm. Accessed July 17, 2011.
Page 252 To visit their client: Author interview with Karina Moskalenko, Strasbourg, July 5, 2011.
Page 253 now run by Putin’s former deputy: “Miller, Alexei,” an unsigned Lentapedia dossier. http://lenta.ru/lib/14160384/. Accessed July 18, 2011.
Page 253 lasted all of two minutes: Yelena Lubarskaya, “‘Yuganskneftegaz’utopili v ‘Baikale,’” lenta.ru, Dec. 20, 2004. http://lenta.ru/articles/2004/12/20/ugansk/. Accessed July 18, 2011. Denis Skorobogat’ko, Dmitry Butrin, and Nikolai Kovalev, “‘Yugansk’ kupili ludi iz ‘Londona,’” Kommersant, Dec. 12, 2004. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/534631?isSearch=True. Accessed July 18, 2011. “Russia to Hold Yukos Auction Despite US Ruling,” unsigned news story on MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6726341/. Accessed July 18, 2011.
Page 254 in the course of a rigged auction: “‘Rosneft’ kupila ‘Baikalfinansgrup,’ poluchiv control nad ‘Yuganskneftegazom,’” unsigned news story, newsru.com. http://www.newsru.com/finance/23dec2004/ros neft.html. Accessed July 18, 2011.
Page 254 net worth at $40 billion: Luke Harding, “Putin, the Kremlin Power Struggle, and the $40bn Fortune,” Guardian, Dec. 21, 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/ dec/21/russia.topstories3. Accessed July 18, 2011.
Page 255 “we knew this was not money”: Author interview with Sergei Kolesnikov, Helsinki, June 2011.
Page 257 the Black Sea project existed: Roman Anin, “Dvortsovaya ploshad 740 tysyach kvadratnykh metrov,” Novaya Gazeta, Feb. 14, 2011. http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2011/016/0 0.html#sup. Accessed July 19, 2011. Pavel Korobov and Oleg Kashin, “Vot chego-chego, a kontrollerov u nas khvatayet,” Kommersant, April 20, 2011. http://www.kommersant.ru/Doc/1625310. Accessed July 19, 2011.
Page 257 “Either you have me help you”: Author interview with Yuli Dubov, London, June 6, 2011.
Page 258 Putin pocketed the 124-diamond Super Bowl ring: Jacob Gershman, “Putin Pockets Patriots Ring,” New York Sun, June 28, 2005. http://www.nysun.com/foreign/putin- pockets-patriots-ring/16172/. Accessed July 19, 2011. Donovan Slack, “For Putin, It’s a Gem of a Cultural Exchange,” Boston Globe, June 29, 2005. http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2005/06/29/for_putin_its_a_gem_of_a_cultural_ exchange/. Accessed July 19, 2011; “Vladimir Putin poluchil persten s 124 brilliantami,” unsigned news item, Kommersant, June 30, 2005. http://www.kommersant.ru/news/984560. Accessed July 19, 2011. Putin’s comment that he “could kill someone with this” was recounted by Robert Kraft’s wife, Myra; see “Myra Kraft: Putin Stole Robert’s Ring,” Jewish Russian Telegraph, March 18, 2007. http://www.jrtelegraph.com/2007/03/myra_kr aft_puti.html. Accessed Oct. 31, 2011.
Page 258 New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Art consultant Nic Iljine recounts the incident in his essay “Guggenheim 24/7,” in Laura K. Jones, ed., A Hedonist’s Guide to Art (London: Filmer, 2010); see, for instance: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/book-details-strongman-vladimir-putins- artful-ways/story-e6frg6so-1225978192724.
Page 258 costs about $300 in Moscow: Here, for example, it is listed for 8,200 rubles: http://www.alcoport.ru/katalog/products/vodka/vodka-kalashnikov/vodka-kalashnikov-1l. Accessed July 19, 2011.
Page 259 Andrei Illarionov discovered: Author interview with Andrei Illarionov, Moscow, June 2011.
Page 262 the Russian blogosphere consisted: Interview with Bruce Eitling and John Kelly, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nov. 7, 2008.
Page 264 editors pulled their stories: In March 2011, Dozhd, an Internet TV channel, canceled the program Grazhdanin Poet over a sketch skewering Medvedev. General Director Natalya Sindeeva explained in a statement that she did not want to insult Medvedev personally. http://tvrain.ru/teleshow/poet_and_citizen/. Accessed Nov. 10, 2011. I had several similar experiences as editor of www.snob.ru, where the publisher, for example, made me remove a reference to a British newspaper article in which Medvedev was called “Putin’s assistant.”
Page 264 “We know they are now lying low”: “Putin poruchil spetssluzhbam ‘vykovyryat’ terroristov so dna kanalizatsii,” unsigned news item on www.lenta.ru, March 30, 2010. http://lenta.ru/news/2010/03/30/drainpipe/. Accessed Nov. 10, 2011.
Page 265 “We don’t spread our legs”: “Putin obidelsya na sravneniye Obamy: My ne umeyem stoyat’ ‘vraskoryachku,’” unsigned news item on www.newsru.com, July 3, 2009. http://www.newsru.com/russia/03jul2009/r askoryachka.html. Accessed Nov. 10, 2011.
Page 265 “I understand that an illness”: Petr Mironenko, Dmitry Butrin, and Yelena Kiselyova, “Rvyot i Mechel,” Kommersant, July 25, 2008. http://www.kommersant.ru/Doc/915811. Accessed Nov. 10, 2011.
Page 265 “to be hit over the head with a stick”: “Putin predrek oppozitsioneram ‘otovarivaniye dubinkoy,’” unsigned news item on www.lenta.ru, Aug. 30, 2010. http://lenta.ru/news/2010/08/30/explain/. Accessed Nov. 10, 2011.
Page 265 topless photographs of him vacationing: “Vladimir
