Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine

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Rough edges and a weaker third act do not prevent Overreach from achieving its aims. It is timely, compelling and arguably more perceptive than could reasonably be expected so soon. It is strongly recommended, especially for readers who have been following the war since February 2022, or who have some prior knowledge of Putin or Russian politics. There are other signs of this that go beyond a larger-than-average number of typos. In some cases, language is loose in a way that could be confusing. Igor Sechin appears twice in one list (with two distinct descriptions, both accurate). Matthews titles the profile of Surkov “The Grey Cardinal”, before frowning on using that epithet for Surkov when he later insists that “the title properly belonged to Nikolai Patrushev”. The claim that an appointment received by a young Sergei Shoigu in 1990 made him “equal rank with rising Party star Boris Yeltsin” may be strictly true, but the implicit suggestion that Yeltsin was a rising star in the Communist Party in 1990 is an unusual one since he was at that point in the final stages of a very messy divorce from the Party.

By mid-March, even Matthews himself has to leave for a while, fearing that his 19-year-old son, a Russian passport holder, may get drafted. Yet amidst this chaos and personal upheaval, he has produced a book that is not merely the first full account of the war, but may set the standard for some time to come. The book is remarkably well written, given that it must have been produced in haste. Matthews brings not only a lifetime of working in and studying Russia, but an eye for detail. He humanises the stories of soldiers (from both sides) as well as civilians caught up in the onslaught. These individual accounts often contain great courage and selflessness, but there are others which hold depravity. When observing a war from a far the tendency to view things in terms of battles and grand strategies sets in and the stories of suffering and heroism on the ground can often be lost in the fog of war. Matthews opens “Overreach” with diary-style fragments that begin on the night of Feb. 23, 2022. From the halls of Putin’s Novo-Ogarevo residence to the presidential palace in Kyiv, to the cities of Belgorod, Bucha, Kherson, and even a small town in Oxfordshire, U.K., this introductory chapter sets the stage, weaving together the individual threads that will form Matthews’ narrative. Moscou Babylone (Les Escales, 2013), a novel based on Matthews' experiences in Moscow in the 1990s, has been published in French, [21] German [22] and Czech. It was chosen as the 'coup de coeur etranger' (favourite foreign book) at the 2013 Nancy Literary Festival, Le Livre sur la Place. [23]Matthews was educated at Westminster School and studied Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford. [6] Journalism [ edit ] Imagine that Russia had colonised America". News – Telegraph Blogs. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. As with all books published in the midst of war this book is already somewhat out of date. Matthews records events up to the end of September 2022. So the Kharkiv offensive of that month is covered but the Russian retreat from Kherson is not. Nor is the Russian offensive around Bakhmut in the winter of 22/23. Using the accounts of current and former insiders from the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, the testimony of captured Russian soldiers and on-the-ground reporting from Russia and Ukraine, Overreach tells the story not only of the war's causes but how the first six months unfolded.

Matthews’s analysis of why the invasion has foundered also offers insights. He challenges, for example, the notion of Kyiv’s armed forces as outnumbered amateurs, pointing out that during the last eight years of the simmering Donbas conflict, some 900,000 Ukrainians have served, “making a vast reserve force with recent combat experience”. Matthews details the exodus of some million people from Russia to countries across Eastern Europe and beyond and then considers the far-reaching ramifications of sanctions as well as Putin’s failed attempts to weaponize gas. MiG-29 ให้กองทัพอากาศยูเครน แต่ในเวลาต่อมาการเดินเกมการทูตแบบส่วนตัวของ หวังอี้ รัฐมนตรีต่างประเทศของจีน กับนาโต้และอเมริกาส่งผลให้จุดยืนเกี่ยวกับรัสเซียและสงครามครั้งนี้ขยับเข้ามาชิดกันมาก จนสีจิ้นผิงประกาศว่าโลกต้อง “ป้องกันไม่ให้เกิดวิกฤตินิวเคลียร์ในทวีปยูเรเซีย” ระหว่างเจอไบเดนในการประชุม G20 ที่บาหลีOrthodox) สุดขั้วที่เอามาใช้ในการรุกรานยูเครนได้ยังไง ทำไมปูตินจึงสั่งให้สร้างอนุสาวรีย์ของ Vladimir the Great หน้าเครมลินในปี 2016 และเชิ่อมตัวเองกับประวัติศาสตร์ช่วงนั้น คน “วงใน” ที่เขาไว้ใจทั้งในและนอกเครมลินมีใครบ้าง ทำไมนักแสดงตลกจึงสามารถชนะการเลือกตั้งเป็นประธานาธิบดียูเครน ทำไมรัสเซียจึงบุกไปยึดครองไครเมียในปี 2014 และทำไมอเมริกาและอังกฤษจึงต่อต้านท่อส่งก๊าซ Nord Stream จากรัสเซียมาเยอรมนี มหกรรมโฆษณาชวนเชื่อ ปฏิบัติการข้อมูลข่าวสาร การยึดกุมสื่อในรัสเซียทำงานยังไง ภาวะที่ทุกคนต้องแยกกันอยู่ในช่วงโรคระบาด COVID-19 ส่งผลต่อความคิดและการวางแผนบุกยูเครนของปูตินอย่างไรบ้าง