Brian Taylor, professor of political science, contributed a chapter to the recently published book Failure. Russia Under Putin (Bloomsbury, 2025).

Taylor is one of multiple authors who share their views on Russia’s failures under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. In his chapter titled “The Siloviki,” he argues that security, military and law enforcement agencies in Russia have been showered with money and granted power by Putin, but that this support has not strengthened the Russian state, which remains corrupt and inefficient.

The book’s 13 chapters are divided into three parts: Economy, Society and Governance. Taylor’s contribution serves as the initial chapter in the Governance section.

Taylor’s books on Russian politics include Russian Politics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2024) and The Code of Putinism (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Taylor is the director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and a senior research associate for the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration. He teaches courses on Russian and post-Soviet politics and comparative civil-military relations.

From the publisher:

“Despite Putin's claims of restoring Russia's rightful place in the world, reviving the economic and industrial capacity destroyed in the 1990s, and improving living standards, data show that the gains from the oil price bonanza of 2000-2008 have long since vanished. The success Putin has achieved in centralizing power and repressing opposition now prevents any effective changes to address Russia's long-term decline. Failures include the inability to diversify the economy, reduce corruption, reverse demographic and educational decline, alleviate poverty, or address social inequalities.

This edited volume examines how Putin's policy choices have led to Russia's inexorable decline on the global stage. Depicting Russia's inability under Vladimir Putin's rule to improve critical spheres of its national life, aggravated by military belligerence and adventurism abroad, chapters detail how Putin's policies have severely limited Russia's development and institutional stability, leaving the country without a clear leadership transition mechanism or capacity to abandon flawed policies.”