To get closer to Vladimir Putin, Giuliano da Empoli had fiction as his best weapon. And he uses it with genius in his novel The Kremlin Magewhich penetrates into the upper echelons of Russian power, by means of an invented character, Vadim Baranov, baptized “Kremlin mage”, and very inspired by Vladislav Surkov, who was Vladimir Putin’s eminence grise until 2021 .
Retired from power and political affairs, Vadim Baranov agrees to tell the narrator about his years in the service of the “Tsar”, as he calls Vladimir Putin, from his appointment as first adviser to Boris Yeltsin, until the annexation of Crimea and the Donbass invasion in 2014.
Giuliano da Empoli is familiar with power, he who was an adviser to the President of the Italian Council Matteo Renzi. He also teaches at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. And the frozen portrait he paints of Vladimir Putin, fictitious as it is, is hardly reassuring. “Putin’s strength was to restore order every time, even with very strong manners”, says the author in an interview, referring in particular to the fact that the Russian president won the favor of his people by his response strong in the attacks first attributed to Chechen separatist terrorists in 1999, but for which the secret services would have been the real culprits. At that time, “the ascetic functionary had suddenly transformed into the archangel of death,” he wrote. It was the first time I had witnessed such a phenomenon. Never, even on the stages of the best theatres, had I witnessed a transfiguration of this kind”. From the outset, his Putin announces it: he has no intention of competing for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In this respect, the author does not hesitate to draw a parallel with Stalin. “You think Stalin is popular despite the massacres,” Putin’s character says in his novel. Well, you are wrong. Stalin is popular because of the massacres. Because he at least knew how to deal with thieves and traitors. »
Limitless Power
For Giuliano da Empoli, the workings of power are similar everywhere, but they do not always take place in the same contexts. “My conviction is that in all latitudes and in all societies, the mechanisms of power are similar,” he said in an interview. What changes are the limits of this power. Fortunately, in our systems, in Europe, in the United States, in Canada, there are limits that are placed on power. There are checks and balances. »
Giuliano da Empoli finished his novel in 2021, before the all-out war led by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. Passionate about Russia, he began to frequent this country in 2010, even if he brilliantly describes the years of chaos – he speaks of a “feudal intermission” – which followed the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. “The discovery of silver was the most overwhelming event of that time,” he wrote. And then the discovery that money could be worth nothing, with the stock market crashing and inflation at 3000%. »
For the writer, Vladimir Putin is first and foremost a Russian who emerged humiliated from this era, and “who saw very badly the degradation of the old empire”. “He surely drew a sense of humiliation from what he experienced in 1990 and even a little after. But at the same time, I see something a little more fundamental in it. […] He is a kind of Russian patriot, I believe, of a delirious patriotism, which does not justify any of its actions. You can explain it, but you can’t justify it,” he says.
As for predicting what will be the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine, Giuliano da Empoli does not risk it.
“Putin thought he could impose his order on Ukraine, and he probably won’t be able to. But he is very comfortable in chaos. So he will do everything to impose chaos on Ukraine. He is at ease in a situation where his inner power has no limits. And he tightens all the bolts of authoritarianism on the outside. It projects chaos. It is something that is not unknown to him. »
[Poutine] is a kind of Russian patriot, I believe, of a delirious patriotism, which does not justify any of its actions. You can explain it, but you can’t justify it.
Submission and irony
Giuliano da Empoli does not foresee a possible rebellion of the Russians against Putin. “Quite frankly, I would be surprised if there was no enthusiasm or fervor either for the war or for the figure of Putin in Russia,” he said, adding, however, that Russians tend to look at power with “submission and irony”.
“I had not predicted the war,” he adds humbly, saying he is also almost embarrassed by the burning news that is currently carrying his novel. The latter, in any case, offers a formidable incursion into the corridors of Russian power.
“This novel is inspired by facts and real characters, to whom the author has lent a private life and imaginary words”, we note at the beginning of the book. That being said, the author does not fear reprisals from Vladimir Putin, who is expressly named in the text.
“He never attached much importance to the written press and even less to books,” he adds. Russian censorship forces are more concerned with television, according to Giuliano da Empoli, which Putin got his hands on fairly quickly.