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137 comments on Using NATO to fight peak gas

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Squalish on January 6, 2007 - 4:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The dissertation, which Putin scholars have tried in vain for years to examine, is one of a number of mysteries surrounding the enigmatic Russian leader's academic career.
The official Kremlin biography asserts Mr. Putin obtained a "Ph.D. in economics" in 1997 from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, but his thesis was for a "candidate of sciences" degree that is considered at least an academic class below a formal doctoral degree.
In a semiautobiographical series of interviews published just after he was named president of Russia in 2000, Mr. Putin does not even mention the thesis, referring only to preliminary work he did on another dissertation on international law at the then-Leningrad State University in 1990 while still formally an employee of the KGB.
It is not even clear when Mr. Putin wrote the thesis, formally titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations," although it is known he returned from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1997 to defend his work.
What is clear, according to Mr. Gaddy and fellow Brookings researcher Igor Danchenko, is that large sections of the dissertation's central argument were taken almost word-for-word from the 1978 management text "Strategic Planning and Policy," by University of Pittsburgh professors William R. King and David I. Cleland.

Wanna know more about Putin's strategy?

There's also this link.

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DingyWhite on January 7, 2007 - 11:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The Soviet/Russian system of academic degrees isn’t compatible with the Western one.
‘Cadidat nauk’ (candidate of sciences) is a degree one step higher than ‘specialist’ (the lowest). A dissertation of ‘candidat nauk’ must observe the existing theories on the chosen subject and demonstrate the graduand’s ability to operate with this information as well as to give the graduand’s own interpretation of these theories regarding some particular case. In Putin’s work it’s strategic resource planning (general subject) on regional level in transition economy (particular case).
It’s a common practice in Russia. My own ‘candidat nauk’ dissertation consists of (one half) excerpts from many Russian and foreign academic texts and (the other half) my interpretation of those theories in particular instance.

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