Putin’s Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia Added to Course Syllabi at the University of Colorado

August 25, 2009 at 5:00 pm Leave a comment

According to acclaimed journalist Steve LeVine, the new Russia is marching in an alarming direction under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. Emboldened by escalating oil wealth as well as newfound prominence as a world power, Russia has veered back toward the authoritarian roots planted in Imperial/Czarist times and firmly established during the Soviet era. Though Russia has a new president, Dmitri Medvedev, Putin remains in control, endangering the democratic reforms of the post-Soviet order. Now, in Putin’s Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia , LeVine provides a penetrating account of modern Russia under the repressive rule of an all-powerful autocrat. LeVine, who lived in and reported from the former Soviet Union for more than a decade, portrays the growth of a “culture of death”—from targeted assassinations of the state’s enemies to the Kremlin’s indifference when innocent hostages are slaughtered. Drawing on new interviews with eyewitnesses and the families of victims, LeVine documents the bloodshed that has stained Putin’s two terms as president. 

Putin’s Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia will be used in a Political Science course at the University of Colorado this Fall.  Get an inside look at the Russian leader’s autocratic regime and his turn away from the West.  Click here to read an article from BusinessWeek.

For more information on the book or author, click here.

To order an examination copy, click here.

Entry filed under: History, Political Science, Uncategorized. Tags: New Russia, Political Science, Putin, Russia.