Product Description

In The Age of Assassins, Yuri Felshtinsky presents a seminal account of the large-scale corruption that followed when, in 2000, Vladimir Putin became the second Russian secret-service officer ever to lead Russia. Based on five years of meticulous research, Felshtinsky tells the explosive story how a ruthless secret corporation of up to 300 top spies claimed the largest country in the world. How did Vladimir Putin amass a fortune larger than oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich? For whom was dictator Pinochet a guiding example? What will Russia be like after Putin? Why was Dmitri Medvedev, the legal architect of secret joint-ventures between Putin s St Petersburg department and convicted criminals, earmarked to become the next President of Russia? Why did the popular spitting-image puppet show Kukly ( Dolls ) have to disappear from Russian TV? The answers lie with the Russian secret service like the Gestapo and Waffen SS a merciless instrument of oppresssion that aims to control, subjugate, destroy and kill. Instituted by Lenin in 1917, its treacherous character proved indestructible after communism. Broken up by Yeltsin into smaller parts, its full powers were revived by Vladimir Putin during the eight years of his Presidency.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39170 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 317 pages

Review
'Explosive.' -- Daily Telegraph --s

'Required reading... a catalogue of corruption.' The Times --s

'A leading Putin-sceptic.' -- BBC Newsnight --s

'Required reading... a catalogue of corruption.' The Times --s

'A leading Putin-sceptic.' -- BBC Newsnight --s

About the Author
Yuri Felshtinsky received doctorates from Rutgers University (on Trotsky) and the University of Moscow, and was a research fellow at the Hoover Institute, University of Stanford. Most recently, he published Blowing up Russia (Gibson Square, 2007, translated into 18 languages), written with Alexander Litvinenko. From Moscow, Vladimir Pribylovsky, a journalist, runs several (foreign based) human-rights websites in Russian.

Customer Reviews

Eye-popping truth about the greed of Russia's billionaires
It is the Barbarians at the Gate of the 21st century. This is the story by Litvinenko's friend of the largest corporate take-over of a whole country led by Putin and his legal side-kick Medvedev. It is greed on a gigantic scale. Read it it, and you'll know where the Putin billionaires get their money to buy London palaces and football clubs.

Blows the lid off the Putin myth
Felshtinsky unremittingly exposes Putin in particular and other Oligarchs with an unflinching eye for meticulously detailed reporting. Putin emerges from the shadows worth over $20 billion having monopolised gambling house licenses in St Petersburg for years, and clearly having done rather well out of it in the process. The image of a Putin (self described) as naked hanging out of a Huge luxury 'Dacha' first floor, lowering his family to safety as a sauna caught light, and set fire to his Mansion is hilarious. Even funnier is how he drily recalls rebuilding the House almost exactly as the burnt original and 'even a little nicer'...
the reasons for the Chechen War are described as a Mundane result of corruption at the highest levels. The profiteers are clearly pointed out.
The Russia Felshtinsky describes is brutal as it is ugly. Corruption has gone to a different level. Russias fabulous wealth has created a Criminal class so rich, so powerful and so malevolent in their aspirations that the Western World in particular should be scared. This ruthless Uber-Rich have the power and money to corrupt almost anyone. The Wests real values of Humanitarian aspirations could be bought tumbling by Russian Oil dollars. Putin and his clan have the means and the inclination to force Europe to its knees, as the buy up of European Energy security shows...