Bøker av David Satter

The Soviet Union, an atheist state, endowed itself with the attributes of God. This text shows through individual stories what it meant to construct an entire state on the basis of a false idea, how people were forced to act out this fictitious reality, and its tragic human cost.

In December 2013, David Satter became the first American journalist to be expelled from Russia since the Cold War. The Moscow Times said it was not surprising he was expelled, "e;it was surprising it took so long."e; Satter is known in Russia for having written that the apartment bombings in 1999, which were blamed on Chechens and brought Putin to power, were actually carried out by the Russian FSB security police. A In this book, Satter tells the story of the apartment bombings and how Boris Yeltsin presided over the criminalization of Russia, why Vladimir Putin was chosen as his sucessor, and how Putin has suppressed all opposition while retaining the appreance of a pluralist state. As the threat represented by Russia becomes increasingly clear, Satter's description of where Russia is and how it got there will be of vital interest to anyone concerned about the dangers facing the world today.

';The Russia that Satter depicts in this brave, engaging book cannot be ignored... Required reading for anyone interested in the post-Soviet state' (Newsweek). Anticipating a new dawn of freedom after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russians could hardly have foreseen the reality of their future a decade later: A country impoverished and controlled at every level by organized crime. This riveting book views the 1990s reform period through the experiences of individual citizens, revealing the changes that have swept Russia and their effect on Russia's age-old ways of thinking. ';With a reporter's eye for vivid detail and a novelist's ability to capture emotion, he conveys the drama of Russia's rocky road for the average victimized Russian... This is only half the story of what is happening in Russia these days, but it is the shattering half, and Satter renders it all the more poignant by making it so human.' Foreign Affairs ';[Satter] tells engrossing tales of brazen chicanery, official greed and unbearable suffering... Satter manages to bring the events to life with excruciating accounts of real Russians whose lives were shattered.' The Baltimore Sun ';Satter must be commended for saying what a great many people only dare to think.' The Globe and Mail (Toronto) ';Humane and articulate.' The Spectator ';Vivid, impeccably researched and truly frightening... Western policy-makers would do well to study these pages.' National Post