Bøker av Marc Bennetts

Weaving memoir with on-the-ground reporting, The Descent illustrates the changing realities of Putin's long and bloody rule and Russia's march to full-scale war in Ukraine.

In 2012, on the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration for a controversial third term as president, mass protests ended in violent clashes between demonstrators and the police. ';They ruined my big day, now I'm going to ruin their lives,' Putin was alleged to have said. Now Boris Nemtsov is dead, other key opposition leaders are either in prison or under house arrest and the Kremlin is using the situation in Ukraine to further its domestic aims, encouraging the rise of violent pro-Putin groups and labelling protesters ';national traitors'. Journalist and long-time Moscow resident Marc Bennetts examines how Putin and his shadowy advisers crushed Russia's brave new protest movement. Featuring rare interviews with everyone from Nemtsov and other protest leaders to Kremlin insiders, Bennetts provides an unprecedented insight into the realities of politics on the ground. The result is a brilliant portrayal of the battle for Russia's soul one which continues to this day.

In 1991, the collapse of the USSR seemed to signal the death of the Russian football industry, as the money, the players and the fans left. But now the oligarchs who profited from the post-Soviet turmoil are supporting the nation's football clubs and their dreams of glory, resulting in unprecedented success. Along this journey into the heart of Russian football, Marc Bennetts meets the managers, oligarchs, players, pundits and fans that define the Russian Premier league, now the fastest-growing and most intriguing football league in the world. From Andrei Arshavin and the national team's adventures at Euro 2008 to the symbolism of a club from war-torn Chechnya lifting the Russian FA Cup, Football Dynamo uncovers shocking revelations about corruption, hooliganism and racism, but also the true beauty of the game and the country.