Invention Of Russia – Ostrovsky Arkady (2016)

The breakup of the Soviet Union brought optimism around the world, yet Russia is now actively involved in subversive information warfare, manipulating the media to destabilize its enemies. How did a country that embraced freedom and market reform 25 years ago become an autocratic police state once again set on confrontation with America? The book reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of Russia’s stealthy and largely unchronicled counter-revolution. Arkady Ostrovsky, a highly regarded Moscow correspondent for The Economist, approaches the subject both as a participant and as a foreign correspondent. His knowledge of many key players helps explain Vladimir Putin’s rise and astonishing longevity, his use of hybrid warfare and the alarming crescendo of his military interventions. One of Putin’s first acts was to reverse Gorbachev’s decision to end media censorship, and Ostrovsky argues that the Russian media have done more to shape the country’s fate than its politicians. Putin pioneered a new form of demagogic populism, oblivious to facts and aggressively nationalistic, which has since been embraced by Donald Trump.