By Mike Donachie — These days, most people would accept that Vladimir Putin is a monster. The briefest glance at a news report might spark emotions that start with horror and work their way through grief, anger and a hot, simmering hatred of Putin and his fellow criminals in the Russian military. The atrocities being committed in Ukraine – and we’re hearing the word “genocide” more and more now – are clearly his responsibility. Just monstrous.

But that’s pretty recent, right? Putin’s been Russia’s head of state for almost 30 years (excluding the highly-suspicious job swap with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev which neatly avoided a term limits problem for Putin) and he spent decades travelling the world smiling that cellophane smile and shaking hands with people as if he was just like the rest of us. 

Do a Google image search for “Putin with celebrities” and – on the very first page – you’ll see him with Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul McCartney and Jack Nicholson; there’s a hug from Gerard Depardieu, a pose alongside Conor McGregor, and a handshake with Steven Seagal. (Actually, never mind that last one.) Putin has shown up in all sorts of places and he’s been tacitly accepted for a long time. If only we had known he was a bad guy when he sat beside the Queen in her golden coach. If only.

If only we had all been paying more attention. Darryl Cunningham has been awake and attentive throughout, and his new book presents 164 pages of damned fine comics journalism that shows the willful ignorance of a world desperate to believe Russia had become a democracy. Putin was always a monster – we just chose to look the other way.

It is a remarkable book. Starting with his birth in Leningrad – now St. Petersburg – where the famous siege had ended just eight years earlier, it traces Putin’s life and shadowy connections all the way to 2022. One crucial date is 1975, when our shirt-shunning protagonist joined the KGB, because Cunningham is building this case: whatever changes took place due to glasnost in the former USSR, it was business as usual for predators like Putin and his friends, who made billions from the transition to what was then called freedom.

It doesn’t depict current events in Ukraine, but it’s still a tough read. In Putin’s Russia, like his four other non-fiction books, Cunningham doesn’t flinch at telling the story we need, and he presents it in an accessible, almost stark cartooning style with surprising nuance, especially in the faces. There is the impression that Cunningham came to know Vlad’s face intimately when creating this book, and that pays off in the subtlety of his changing expressions, like an illustrated alt-text when your eyes hover over the page.

Throughout the narrative, there is one common thread: Vladimir Putin knew. In presenting shocking events from the 70s until today, Cunningham avers the Russian leader was at least complicit, and often active, in atrocities, screw-ups and murky dealings that have been reported countless times, often as worldwide headlines.

There are fatal illnesses, unexplained disappearances and outright murders. There’s the Kursk disaster, in which 23 survivors trapped in a sunken submarine died because Putin delayed accepting international help, reluctant to let foreigners look at his navy. There’s the whiff of a burning Reichstag connected to Russia’s military action in Chechnya, which was buoyed by public anger at the terrorist attack that killed at least 130 people in a Moscow theatre. (Cunningham presents evidence that many died due to the Russian police’s disregard for the welfare of victims.) 

And there is so much more. Here, a journalist takes a dive out of a 14th-floor window. There, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is shot down by a Russian missile over a disputed area of Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and crew. Or, if you want an individual’s story, how about Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered with radioactive poison in an incident that started in a teapot and was traced, using Geiger counters, to dozens of spots across London? This book’s got it all.

All the time, Putin’s cronies – some of whom are ex-KGB, while others are just weasels in expensive suits – are there in the background, using privatized public infrastructure to generate piles of money that would make Scrooge McDuck drop his monocle. It’s disturbing stuff, and eminently believable. This happened in our lifetimes and we all just ignored it. Great work, everybody.

Let’s stop here and talk about attribution for a moment, because that’s this book’s weakness, if it has one. Cunningham has researched and built a compelling narrative but it must be said his citations, though exhaustive, are hardly authoritative. Some of his assertions are suppositions – such as, if Russia did this, Putin must have known – while others are more directly attributable. But, even if the overriding narrative does require some buy-in by the reader, Occam’s razor will have you nodding in agreement throughout. Donald Trump, in case you’re wondering, finally shows up on page 115, and that’s when you’ll really start recognizing names from the news.

This is, it is important to say, a book that does not readily entertain the reader. Like Cunningham’s last offering, Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful, it adds challenging thoughts to minds that were happier without them. But it’s a compelling graphic novel, however many of its appalling events we are willing to blame on Putin. All the while, it feels like a story we should have known already, if only we had been watching, and willing to believe it.

We can believe it now. Vlad’s a monster, after all. Everybody knows that. But, in closing his book, Cunningham asks what we’re going to do about it. On his last page, in a passionate call to punish murder and corruption while supporting democracy and the rule of law, he writes: “Do nothing and Putin will strengthen his grip on our world.”

Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator, was published on February 15. Ten days later, the Russian military invaded Ukraine. At time of writing, the civilian death toll is 2,729, according to the United Nations. The conflict continues.

GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: Putin’s Russia — The Rise of a Dictator

Putin’s Russia — The Rise of a Dictator
Creator: Darryl Cunningham
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
From schoolyard thug to Russian president: Putin’s rise to power comes under the microscope
Price: $29.95
Buy It Here: In Print / Digital

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Mike Donachie is a communications professional and occasional writer about comics. He lives in London, Ontario and is disconcertingly Scottish.