Keith Moon, a member of the faculty of The Hotchkiss School and a frequent visitor to Noble Horizons where he has led a number of workshops on Russian literature, was at Noble on the afternoon of October 15 to share his thoughts on Vladimir Putin. Fluent in Russian and a frequent traveler to the country, Mr. Moon described Putin’s spectacular rise to power, from his years in the KGB in the ’70s and ’80s, his return to what was then Leningrad (St. Petersburg) to work for the deputy mayor and becoming President of the Russian Federation in 1999. With an extension of his term of office and other political alterations to the system, there is every reason to believe that Putin will hold sway over Russia for an indefinite period. Mr. Moon said that while Moscow and St. Petersburg are vibrant cities, the remainder of the country hasn’t changed. As an interesting side note, he mentioned that Putin’s personal fortune is estimated to be between 2.2 and 98 billion dollars.
