This is actually a very generous account of how Putin rose to power.

See: http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Without-Face-Unlikely/dp/15944...

Oh, well, if Vladimir Putin says everything's OK.

Good read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Without-Face-Unlikely/dp/15944...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Without-Face-Unlikely/dp/15944... discusses it in great length.

Whenever he shows up, the venues seem to be either cancelled outright or suffer from all sorts of electrical and infrastructure problems all of a sudden. Couple of times he chose to take his message to the people outside the closed venue, he was egged, with police preventing his followers from chasing the perpetrators. Of course, those are also the images that TV stations choose display whenever mentioning Kasparov in passing.

When you control the media, it's easy to hand-pick quotes and stock photos to portray even the most eloquent and intellectual speaker as crazy bum who's shouting in public places to gain self-promotion.