Keen On

Did history ever go away? For the former BBC Russia correspondent, Martin Sixsmith, there was a few euphoric years, in the early 1990’s, when history promised to end. That time, of course, was the post-Soviet Russia of Boris Yeltsin and the promise that “they” could become like “us” and embrace both democracy and a Chicago school market capitalism. In his new book, PUTIN AND THE RETURN OF HISTORY, Sixsmith tells the story of the transition from this euphoria about the end of history into the Ukraine fueled pessimism of today. But Sixsmith doesn’t blame everything on Putin, who he describes as a Russian Zelig, a Machiavellian opportunist who simultaneously was made by and has made history. Yes, he argues, the Kremlin has rekindled the Cold War. But we in the West also have some responsibility for not understanding the historic Russian paranoia about being invaded by western powers. Martin Sixsmith is a bestselling author, television and radio presenter and journalist. He began working at the BBC in 1980 as a f