Putin is a Cartoon. Literally

Review by Bill Doughty––

Russia’s President Putin is a cartoon in the seriously insightful “Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin” by Andrew S. Weiss and Brian “Box” Brown, First Second, 2022).

Like the best graphic novels and graphic nonfiction, much is communicated in few words. For example ––

• “For Russia, geography is destiny”: With no natural defenses including oceans, unlike the United States, “Russia safeguarded its security through conquest and territorial expansion.”
• Quoting Gene Sharp, author of “The Politics of Nonviolent Action”: “Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are.”
• Fomenting fear, conspiracies, and disinformation: “Russian leaders simply can’t accept that brave people sometimes shape history all on their own.”
• Again quoting Sharp: “The extreme repression comes when a dictatorship really is frightened and therefore they act ruthlessly.”
• Irony: In May 2007 in a Victory Day speech in Moscow, Putin said, “We have a duty to remember that the causes of any war lie above all in the mistakes and miscalculations of peacetime.”
• Putin compared the United States to Nazi Germany and said, “These new threats, just as under the Third Reich, show the same contempt for human life.” Irony meets hypocrisy (condemning “contempt for human life”) when considering what Putin is doing to the people of Ukraine.

Weiss’s insights are succinct but deep. Brown’s simple art is both evocative and informative.

This book follows the rise of Putin from childhood to KGB apparatchik in East Germany, to Communist Party hack, to opportunistic sycophant, to power-mad leader. Picturing Russian history, Weiss and Brown show how Putin put forth grandiose ideas for restoring the “glory” of the Russian Empire and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Nearly 40 years ago, in 1989, Russian territory covered “one-sixth of the earth’s landmass.”

Faith in Russia’s system of nepotism, cronyism, and corruption is baked into its history, where serfdom was a close equivalent to slavery. The czar and the State were held above the individual or rule of law.

Putin’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014 were telling signs that he would commit further international crimes. “Territorial expansion is at the core of Russia’s national identity,” according to Weiss.

We learn about the roles of a whole host of characters who endorsed Putin: former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Alexandr Torshin and Maria Butina, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, evangelist Franklin Graham, actor Steven Seagal, Republican representative Steve King, and Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

Putin v. McCain

On the other side, we see Putin’s nemeses, including former President Barack Obama, entertainers Pussy Riot, philanthropist George Soros, and late Senator John McCain, who was a “perennial nemesis of Putin.” Navy hero McCain was pro-Ukraine and pro-democracy; he saw Putin as an autocratic war criminal.

The late former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright endorsed: “Accidental Czar is an absorbing and visually stunning account of Vladimir Putin’s rise and take-no-prisoners approach to wielding power on the world stage. Andrew S. Weiss and Brian Brown have made one of the most consequential stories of our time more accessible and engaging for readers of all backgrounds. I would urge anyone who wants to better understand the forces shaping modern Russia, and disrupting our world, to open up this extraordinary book.”

Fiona Hill offers this endorsement: “This biography of Vladimir Putin deftly combines entertainment and serious analysis. Renowned Russia scholar Andrew S. Weiss and artist Brian Brown have found the perfect means to introduce the complexities of Russian politics and Putin’s peculiarities to a new set of audiences. Everyone should have a copy of Accidental Czar on their bookshelf.” Hill is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin." (She also authored the brilliant “There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century.”)

“Accidental Czar” is also blurbed by other notable thinkers, including former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, former President Bush speechwriter David Frum, conservative historian Max Boot, and New Yorker staff writer Susan B. Glasser. Author Gary Shteyngart blurbs: “A witty and comprehensive takedown of the annoying Putin-is-a-genius myth.”

In fact, Weiss and Brown show how Putin the cartoon is actually a deranged, dangerous, and destructive war criminal.