Putin Accused of Plagiarizing His Dissertation

Vladimar Putin is accused of copying a large part of his dissertation from a management text:

Researchers peg Putin as a plagiarist over thesis, by David R. Sands, Washington Times: Vladimir Putin -- KGB spy, politician, Russian Federation president, 2006 host of the Group of Eight international summit -- can add a new line to his resume: plagiarist. Large chunks of Mr. Putin's mid-1990s economics dissertation on planning in the natural resources sector were lifted straight out of a management text published by two University of Pittsburgh academics nearly 20 years earlier ... "Somebody was cutting corners," said Mr. Gaddy, "whether it was Mr. Putin or whoever cut-and-pasted the work for him."  ... Mr. Putin's effort should be seen in a Russian, post-Soviet context, some scholars said. E. Wayne Merry ... at the American Foreign Policy Council, said dubious academic credential building was common in Eastern Europe and especially the old East Germany... "It was really quite common for an up-and-coming apparatchik to get a ghostwritten work done to obtain a degree," he said. "It's probably an open question whether Putin even read his dissertation until shortly before he had to defend it."...

Comments

[hirvi]

Oh gosh, what a joke! I wonder who put this in the works :-)

But has no one ever asked how GWB got his "degrees"?

I for one find it quite extraordinary that someone with a Yale "history degree" can cite "150 years of close cooperation" between the US and Japan (airbrushing WW2 from memory) and also not know there are blacks in Brasil (or presumably, why they were there in the first place).

Is there any chance of Bush's "dissertations" seeing the light of day?

[hirvi]

I seriously would like to know this, btw.

Is there any reason why Bush's 'academic writing' should not be on public record?

[Bruce Webb]

Yes, this seems an odd time for the Moonie Times to be pushing the theme of plagiarism, or resume padding. A blazing comet of the Right just fizzled out before he even really got started. A little examination of Ben's CV shows an amazing amount of access. Contributer to Human Events at 15. Appointment to a Presidential Commission in 1998 (which would make him 16). Nailing an internship to NRO in his first semester of college (18). Youngest political appointee in the Bush Administration (what 21? 22?). And then being handed a Blog at the WaPo at the age of 24. Which lasted almost a day.

Oh, oh! Don't look over there!! Putin had some help with his dissertation!

Look I know Putin, I looked in his eyes and I can see his soul. Oops, sorry just channeled Dubya for a second. Putin was a top ranking KGB officer. Somehow I doubt plagiarism is the worst outrage he ever endulged in.

[Emmanuel]

He may be a plagiarist, but I wouldn't mess with Putin all the same. Bush comes across as an oaf, or an amiable bumbler at best. Putin has that cold, cold stare to complement his KGB training and judo black belt. I know who I'd rather poke fun at, and it sure ain't the man from St. Petersburg. The Washington Times, we hardly knew ye.

[Bruce Webb]

BTW was Putin's dissertation in English? Or was that University of Pittsburgh textbook in Russian? Plagiarism is plagiarism, and even in translation can still be detected, but there is a lot more to translation than "cut and paste". Who on earth would have read through Putin's dissertation and then had the hunch to try to match it with management texts from the 70's? In a different language?

The whole thing seems fishy.

[calmo]

Good morning Bruce. I can sense a certain edge to your posts lately as if you were counting the days, maybe hours, to the next SSTF release. [If not, I am merely projecting.]
'Agree entirely with the fishiness, the timing, the translation, the sources, even the humorous distraction about W's authenticity [You have no idea the Restraint I needed not to follow hirvi.]

But I keep to the straight and narrow: what can we expect from this release?

[save_the_rustbelt]

Wow, am I going to lose sleep over this!

Not.

[Bruce Webb]

Calmo, "edge" doesn't begin to describe it. I am not kidding when I say that the release of the Report in late March is some combination of Christmas and Easter in the Webb household. Watching Social Security in real time when real time means 365 day gaps between data sets, and has meant that since 1997, means an excruciating analysis of the then current data set waiting for the next one.

I have been most active since Bush went public in November 2004 but I have been posting on this topic here and there for years. I was prepared to enter into a full-court defence of Social Security back in 2000 during Bush v Gore. Bush chose not to go there during that campaign, and then in this respect 9/11 really did change everything, the 2002 midterms and even the 2004 presidential elections turned on other issues. But in November 2004 Bush declared War. And I had a response prepared.

http://bruceweb.blogspot.com/2005/03/2005-report.html
On the morning the 2005 Report was released this was my first response:
"Pardon the incoherency, I am running around the room high-fiving myself. But first the numbers:"

I am under a certain amount of personal and work stress over the last couple weeks. Certain things came out of the blue. But the fourth week of March is always a period of serious tension chez Webb.

So Calmo you are not projecting, I am seriously stressing in all parts of my life right now, but the reality is that I am more heavily invested in the economic numbers of Table V.BI and Figure II.D7 this week than some big issues elsewhere.

Depending on what those numbers reveal the range of possible responses goes from "Bruce you are a fucking moron" to "Bruce you are so dreamy, I want to bear your children".

I am not particularly interested in starting a family at my age but it is certainly more attractive than retiring "Bruce Webb" and simply starting over as "Lludd Llaw Eraint" or "Nodens". I fully expect to avoid the "fucking moron" label, but I am not expecting that they will simply hand me a victory lap.

Monomaniac? Or just Maniac? This week will present the annual test, and yes I am stressing. But "first the numbers"

[calmo]

Ancient Welsh hero, we are grateful (pay no attention to Rusty who has gone soft on Krugman, making everyone nervous) for your posts here and especially that personal defence of the public good that is in untrustworthy hands.