An essential guide to the strange, sinister culture of contemporary Russia. When Jonathan Fink studied Russia in university in the 1990s he developed a passion for the country that seemed under Boris Yeltsin to throw off the shackles of repression. Thirty years later, he set out to uncover through interviews the real heart of Russia, a country besieged by unfathomable terrorism and deep-seated paranoia, where crime is scarcely ever met with punishment. This eminently readable book shows that need to look at the Kremlin’s deeds and ignore their words as a rule to get to the truth.