An eclectic figure and a true all-around intellectual, Giuliano da Empoli is not easy to define: president of Volta Think-Tank, an “idea accelerator,” former CEO of Marsilio, cultural councillor in Florence, board member of the Venice Biennale, professor of comparative politics in Paris, journalist, and essayist. In 2022, he published a study on Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, presented in the form of a novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin. The analysis of events is meticulously documented, but the inclusion of a narrator makes it more accessible. The narrator is Baranov, a pseudonym for Vladislav Surkov: a youth spent in the theater, followed by a prominent role in the Russian presidential administration.
How a leader is born. The protagonist of the film is the fictional character Vadim Baranov, an artist and producer entrusted with organizing the election campaign of the then-unknown Vladimir Putin, a young and ambitious face of...
The novel traces the end of the illusions of the Yeltsin government – “fallen into the trap of Clintonian warmth” – the uncontrolled rise of the oligarchs, the country’s gradual disintegration, and finally, the emergence of Putin with strong central control. The tone alternates between lightness – “Do you know what a Soviet duet is? A quartet that went on tour abroad” – and significant literary references: “As Faust says, whoever must command must find their happiness in command.” Putin’s actions are followed without direct judgment: from the Chechen guerrilla war to the tragedy of the Kursk submarine, from meetings with the U.S. administration to the beginnings of the conflict in Ukraine, all observed from a high, panoramic perspective that not everyone will appreciate. What stands out is the author’s ability to turn the novel into a modern Machiavellian Prince: “Politics has only one purpose: to respond to the terrors of man.” Or again: “Anger is a structural fact… the issue is not to try to fight it, but only to direct it.”
