Prophetic Russia novelist Voinovich speaks of Putin era's end

Russian writer Vladimir Voinovich in his cottage near Moscow. He says Vladimir Putin has become "outdated as a leader, like a typewriter in the era of computers." (Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times. / January 22, 2012)


In 1986, from exile, Vladimir Voinovich published a novel describing a shrunken, post-Soviet Russia run by a former KGB spy who had been stationed in Germany – what later happened with Vladimir Putin.

By Sergei L. Loiko,
Los Angeles Times
8:37 PM PST, January 22, 2012

Reporting from Vatutinki, Russia

Writer Vladimir Voinovich has spent decades skewering Russia's bureaucracy and power structure — and in some cases predicting the future with uncanny accuracy. Soviet officials punished him by stripping him of his citizenship in 1980 and expelling him.

Six years later, writing from exile, he published the novel "Moscow 2042." It described a shrunken, post-Soviet Russia run by a former KGB spy who had been stationed in Germany. That was years before Vladimir Putin, a former spy based in Germany, actually did rise to power. Voinovich, now 79, returned to Russia in 1990. He sat down with the Los Angeles Times last week to discuss the protest movement against Putin.

How did you manage to predict back in 1986 that Putin would rise to power in Russia?

When the Soviet power was drowning in its own senility and decay, I already had a feeling that it was time for the KGB to step in and take control. They had been loyal servants to the [Communist] Party throughout its history, but they were also much more cynical and better educated than their party bosses.... And I sensed that a time would come when they dared to ask for a bigger price for their loyalty.

(More here.)