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The Wizard Of The Kremlin
''The Wizard of the Kremlin'' (French: ''Le mage du Kremlin'') is the debut novel by Giuliano da Empoli, published in French in April 2022 by Éditions Gallimard. It won the 2022 Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française and was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt, which was awarded to ''Vivre vite'' by Brigitte Giraud. Summary The author recounts his imagined meeting, one night in Moscow, with the enigmatic Vadim Baranov, once an artist, producer of reality TV shows, and éminence grise of Vladimir Putin, nicknamed "the Tsar". Retired from business at the time of the story, Baranov recounts his youth, his life in 1990s Russia, his contribution to the political rise of "the Tsar" from 1999 and his experience of power, the central theme of the book. Realist elements Character inspired by Vladislav Surkov The main character of the plot, Vadim Baranov, is fictional, but he shares many common traits with Russian politician Vladislav Surkov, whose atypical profile—ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuliano Da Empoli
Giuliano da Empoli (born 1973) is an Italian and Swiss political essayist and novelist. He is the founding chairman of Volta, a think tank based in Milan and a professor at Sciences Po Paris. In 2022, he published his debut novel '' Le Mage du Kremlin'', for which he received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. Life and career Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1973, Giuliano da Empoli grew up in several European countries, graduated in law at Sapienza University of Rome and obtained a master's degree in political science at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He has been Deputy Mayor for culture in Florence and a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. He has also been an executive board member at the Venice Biennale and the chairman of the Gabinetto Vieusseux in Florence. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Senior Advisor to Italy's Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Francesco Rutelli, establishing the first Italian Design ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis (also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege) was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater by Chechen terrorists on 23 October 2002, which involved 850 hostages and ended with Russian security services killing or causing the death of at least 170 people. The attackers, led by Movsar Barayev, claimed allegiance to the Islamist separatist movement in Chechnya. They demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War. Due to the layout of the theater, special forces would have had to fight through of corridor and advance up a well-defended staircase before they could reach the hall in which the hostages were held. The attackers had numerous explosives, with the most powerful in the center of the auditorium. Spetsnaz operators from Federal Security Service (FSB) Alpha and Vympel, supported by a Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) SOBR unit, pumped a chemical agent into the building's ventilation syst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concubinage
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubinage was a formal and institutionalized practice in China until the 20th century that upheld concubines' rights and obligations. A concubine could be freeborn or of slave origin, and their experience could vary tremendously according to their masters' whim. During the Mongol conquests, both foreign royals and captured women were taken as concubines. Concubinage was also common in Meiji Japan as a status symbol, and in Indian society, where the intermingling of castes and religions was frowned upon and a taboo, and concubinage could be practiced with women with whom marriage was considered undesirable, such as those from a lower caste and Muslim women who wouldn't be accepted in a Hindu household and Hindu women who wouldn't be accepted in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in London. In 2003, Khodorkovsky was believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, with a fortune estimated to be worth $15billion, and was ranked 16th on ''Forbes'' list of billionaires. He had worked his way up the Komsomol apparatus, during the Soviet years, and started several businesses during the period of ''glasnost'' and ''perestroika'' in the late 1980s. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in the mid-1990s, he accumulated considerable wealth by obtaining control of a number of Siberian oil fields unified under the name Yukos, one of the major companies to emerge from the privatization of state assets during the 1990s (a scheme known as "Loans for Shares"). In 2001, Khodorkovsky founded Open Russia, a reform-minded organization ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lubyanka Building
The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a facade of yellow brick designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947. It was previously the national headquarters of the KGB. Soviet hammer and sickles can be seen on the building's facade. Description The Lubyanka building is home to the Lubyanka prison, the headquarters of the Border Guard Service, a KGB museum, and a subsection of the FSB. Part of the prison was turned into a prison museum, but a special authorization is required for visits. The lower floors are made of granite with emblazoned Soviet crests. History Origins The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company (''Rossiya Insurance Company''), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Security Service
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii, fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnəjə ˈsluʐbə bʲɪzɐˈpasnəstʲɪ rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP). The primary responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Berezovsky (businessman)
Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (russian: link=no, Борис Абрамович Березовский; 23 January 1946 – 23 March 2013), also known as Platon Elenin, was a Russian business oligarch, government official, engineer and mathematician and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Berezovsky made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, when the country implemented privatization of state property. He profited from gaining control over assets, including the country's main television channel, Channel One. In 1997, ''Forbes'' estimated Berezovsky's wealth at US$3 billion. Berezovsky helped fund Unity, the political party that would form Vladimir Putin's first parliamentary base, and was elected to the Duma on Putin's slate in the 1999 Russian legislative election. However, following the Russian presidential election in March 2000, Berezovsky went into opposition and resigned from the Duma. Berezovsky would remain a vocal critic of Putin for the rest of his life. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Echos (France)
''Les Echos'' is the first daily French financial newspaper, founded in 1908 by the brothers Robert and Émile Servan-Schreiber. It is the main competitor of ''La Tribune'', a rival financial paper. History and profile The paper was established as a monthly publication under the name of ''Les Échos de l'Exportation'' by the brothers Robert and Émile Servan-Schreiber in 1908. It became a daily newspaper in 1928 and was renamed as ''Les Echos''. The newspaper was bought by the British media group Pearson PLC in 1988, and was sold to the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH in November 2007. The publisher of the paper is Les Echos Le Parisien Médias. ''Les Echos'' has a liberal stance and is published on weekdays. The paper is headquartered in Paris and has a website which was launched in 1996. The paper publishes economical analyses by leading economists, including Joseph Stiglitz and Kenneth Rogoff. In September 2003, ''Les Echos'' switched from tabloid format to Berliner ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Point
''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and news magazine published in Paris. History and profile ''Le Point'' was founded in September 1972 by a group of journalists who had, one year earlier, left the editorial team of '' L'Express'', which was then owned by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, a ''député'' (member of parliament) of the Parti Radical, a centrist party. The company operating ''Le Point'', ''Société d'exploitation de l'hebdomadaire Le Point'' (''SEBDO Le Point'') has its head office in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The founders emphasize on readers' need and it became the aim of ''Le Point'' which is published weekly on Thursdays by Le Point Communication. After a fairly difficult start in September 1972, the magazine quickly challenged ''L'Express''. The editorial team of spring 1972 found financial backing with group Hachette and was then directed by Claude Imbert. Other journalists making up the team were: Jacques Duquesne, Henri Trinchet, Pierre B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An estimated 8 million Ukrainians were displaced within their country by late May and 7.8 million fled the country by 8 November 2022, while Russia, within five weeks of the invasion, experienced its greatest emigration since the 1917 October Revolution. Following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed paramilitaries seized part of the Donbas region of south-eastern Ukraine, which consists of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, sparking a regional war. In March 2021, Russia began a large military build-up along its border with Ukraine, eventually amassing up to 190,000 troops and their equipment. Despite the build-up, denials of plans to invade or attack Ukraine were issued by various Russian gover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the first president of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a Political Independent, political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism. Yeltsin was born in Butka, Russia, Butka, Ural Oblast. He grew up in Kazan and Berezniki. After studying at the Ural State Technical University, he worked in construction. After joining the Communist Party, he rose through its ranks, and in 1976 he became First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk Oblast committee. Yeltsin was initially a supporter of the ''perestroika'' reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word ''fresco'' ( it, affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective ''fresco'' meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. The word ''fresco'' is commonly and inaccurately used in English to refer to any wall painting regardless of the plaster technology or binding medium. This, in part, contributes to a misconception that the most geographically and temporally common wall painting technology was the painting into wet lime plaster. Even in appar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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