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: #74710 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

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

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

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

Synopsis
Using Alexander Litvinenko's testimony, Yuri Felshtinsky wrote the international bestseller "Blowing up Russia" about the rigged election of Vladimir Putin in 2001.In his exceptional new book, "The Age of Assassins", Felshtinsky investigates how Russia under Putin became the first country in history to be ruled by its secret service. Using first-hand information from former oligarchs and KGB spies, he describes how the power has shifted away from the oligarchs to a small network of spies. Together they have created a power that was unimaginable even under Russian Communism.

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.