Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

In Putin’s Labyrinth, acclaimed journalist Steve LeVine, who lived in and reported from the former Soviet Union for more than a decade, provides a gripping account of modern Russia. President Dmitri Medvedev and the country’s real power, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are posing a resolute challenge to the West. In a penetrating narrative that recounts the lives and deaths of six Russians, LeVine portrays the growth of a “culture of death”—from targeted assassinations of the state’s enemies to the Kremlin’s indifference when innocent hostages are slaughtered. Interviews with eyewitnesses and the families and friends of these victims reveal how Russians manage to negotiate their way around the ever-present danger of violence and the emotional toll that this lethal maze is exacting on ordinary people. The result is a fresh way of assessing the forces that are driving this major new confrontation with the West.

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Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

In Putin’s Labyrinth, acclaimed journalist Steve LeVine, who lived in and reported from the former Soviet Union for more than a decade, provides a gripping account of modern Russia. President Dmitri Medvedev and the country’s real power, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are posing a resolute challenge to the West. In a penetrating narrative that recounts the lives and deaths of six Russians, LeVine portrays the growth of a “culture of death”—from targeted assassinations of the state’s enemies to the Kremlin’s indifference when innocent hostages are slaughtered. Interviews with eyewitnesses and the families and friends of these victims reveal how Russians manage to negotiate their way around the ever-present danger of violence and the emotional toll that this lethal maze is exacting on ordinary people. The result is a fresh way of assessing the forces that are driving this major new confrontation with the West.

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Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

by Steve Levine
Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

by Steve Levine

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Overview

In Putin’s Labyrinth, acclaimed journalist Steve LeVine, who lived in and reported from the former Soviet Union for more than a decade, provides a gripping account of modern Russia. President Dmitri Medvedev and the country’s real power, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are posing a resolute challenge to the West. In a penetrating narrative that recounts the lives and deaths of six Russians, LeVine portrays the growth of a “culture of death”—from targeted assassinations of the state’s enemies to the Kremlin’s indifference when innocent hostages are slaughtered. Interviews with eyewitnesses and the families and friends of these victims reveal how Russians manage to negotiate their way around the ever-present danger of violence and the emotional toll that this lethal maze is exacting on ordinary people. The result is a fresh way of assessing the forces that are driving this major new confrontation with the West.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780812978414
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 04/21/2009
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Steve LeVine is the author of The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea. He is the chief foreign affairs writer for BusinessWeek and is based in Washington, D.C. He was a foreign correspondent for eighteen years, posted in the Soviet Union, Pakistan, and the Philippines, reporting for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, Financial Times, and other publications.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction xiii

Cast of Characters xxiii

Chapter 1 Russia's Dark Side 3

A Land in the Grip of a Brutal History

Chapter 2 How Putin Got Elected 13

Boris Yeltsin Finds a Guarantor in a Man from Nowhere

Chapter 3 Getting to Know The Putin 26

Morning in Russia-at a Price

Chapter 4 Nikolai 36

The First Victim of Deliberate Nuclear Poisoning

Chapter 5 Nord-Ost 49

Once Again, Mother Russia Fails Her People

Chapter 6 The Exiles 68

Boris Berezovsky and the Sanctuary of London

Chapter 7 The Crusading American 88

Paul Klebnikov and Glorious Russia

Chapter 8 Murder on an Elevator 103

Anna Politkovskaya and the Voiceless of Russia

Chapter 9 The Traitor 122

Alexander Litvinenko: A Defector in London

Chapter 10 Polonium 137

The World Is Witness to an Assassination

Epilogue 157

Afterword 167

Acknowledgments 173

Notes 177

Bibliography and Note on Sources 197

Index 201

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