The Invention of Russia: The Journey from Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War by Arkady Ostrovsky

Winner of the Orwell Prize
Financial Times Book of the Year

How did a country that embraced freedom thirty years ago end up as an autocratic police state bent once again on confrontation with the West? In this Orwell Prize-winning book, Arkady Ostrovsky reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of Russia’s stealthy and largely unchronicled post-Soviet transformation.

A highly regarded Moscow correspondent for the Economist, Arkady Ostrovsky comes to this story both as a participant and a foreign correspondent. His knowledge of many of the key players allows him to explain the phenomenon of Vladimir Putin – his rise and astonishing longevity, his use of hybrid warfare and the alarming crescendo of his military interventions. In his new paperback preface, Ostrovsky explores how Putin influenced the US election, the Trump Putin access, and shows how Putin’s methods – weaponising the media and serving up fake news – came to enter American politics.

Paperback