An essential guide to the strange, sinister culture of
contemporary Russia. When Jonathan Fink studied Russia
in university in the 1990s he developed a passion for the
country that seemed under Boris Yeltsin to throw off the
shackles of repression. Thirty years later, he set out to
uncover through interviews the real heart of Russia, a country besieged by unfathomable terrorism and deep-seated
paranoia, where crime is scarcely ever met with
punishment. This eminently readable book shows that
need to look at the Kremlin's deeds and ignore their
words as a rule to get to the truth.