Boris Nemtsov recalled this anecdote in an interview with the author in December 2013.2 . Author interview with Anatoly Pakhomov, Sochi’s mayor, December 2013.3 . Aleksandr Zhukov, interviewed by the author in January 2014, recounted the Politburo’s deliberations over future Olympic sites, which were only revealed years later in a declassified report.4 . Associated Press, July 1, 2007.5 . Associated Press, July 4, 2007.6 . Sakwa, Crisis of Russian Democracy, p. 163.7 . Roxburgh, p. 208.8 . Ibid., p. 211.9 . Hill and Gaddy, pp. 181–82.10 . Ibid., p. 182. Richard Sakwa also attended; see Crisis of Russian Democracy, p. 178.11 . Sakwa, Crisis of Russian Democracy, p. 178.12 . Kommersant, Oct. 9, 2007.13 . As transcribed by Ekho Moskvy, Oct. 30, 2007.14 . One version of this analysis was revealed by WikiLeaks in a cable from the American ambassador, William Burns, dated Oct. 18, 2007. “In the absence of political institutions,” he wrote, “the glue of the system created by Putin is his personalized power and the loyalty of those he appointed to key positions.
