Topics of Interest

Pleshakov illustrates how the proxy war unfolding in Ukraine is a clash of incompatible world views. To the U.S. and Europe, Ukraine is a country struggling for self-determination in the face of Russia's imperial nostalgia. To Russia, Ukraine is a "sister nation," where NATO expansionism threatens its own borders. In Crimea itself, the native Tatars are Muslims who are vehemently opposed to Russian rule. Engagingly written and bracingly nonpartisan, Pleshakov's book explains the missteps made on all sides to provide a clear, even-handed account of a major international crisis.

Putin's Master Plan makes the case that it is essential to wake up to Putin's strategy to divide Europe, destroy NATO, and build a new empire in the former Soviet Union. Russia has demonstrated an extraordinary level of aggression, most boldly by its outright invasions of Georgia and Ukraine. Russia's terrified neighbors have been left without an alternative to Russian domination by American weakness and a divided Europe, and even once-stalwart American allies such as Georgia are on the brink of becoming part of Putin's new empire in Europe. Putin has made it clear that he sees NATO expansion as a fundamental threat to Russian nationhood, and he is systematically challenging the NATO Alliance as well as the United States.

Marcel H. Van Herpen argues that the Kremlin's propaganda offensive is a carefully prepared strategy, implemented and tested over the last decade. Initially intended as a tool to enhance Russia's soft power, it quickly developed into one of the main instruments of Russia's new imperialism, reminiscent of the height of the Cold War. The author describes a multifaceted strategy that makes use of diverse instruments, including mimicking Western public diplomacy initiatives, hiring Western public-relations firms, setting up front organizations, buying Western media outlets, financing political parties, organizing a worldwide propaganda offensive through the Kremlin's cable network RT, and publishing paid supplements in leading Western newspapers. In this information war, key roles are assigned to the Russian diaspora and the Russian Orthodox Church, the latter focused on spreading so-called traditional values and attacking universal human rights and Western democracy in international fora.

In Russia, the twenty-first century belongs to Vladimir Putin. His political dominance has lasted two presidential terms, an appointment to prime minister, and a controversial election to a third presidential term. And like the violent tsars and Soviet revolutionaries who came before him, he maintains his grip on power through coercion and intimidation. As journalists, activists, and political opponents in the Putin era continue to fall victim to suspicious illnesses and outright murder, a pattern has emerged. No matter who is charged with a specific death, the order to kill appears to come from above. Amy Knight, whom The New York Times called the West's foremost scholar of the KGB, presents a thorough and provocative examination of murders under the Putin regime.