A devastating account of contemporary Russia by a great and\nbrave writer.

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A Russian Diary is the book that Anna Politkovskaya had\nrecently completed when she was murdered in a contract killing in\nMoscow. It covers the period from the Russian elections of December\n2003 to the tragic aftermath of the Beslan school siege in late\n2005. The book is an unflinching record of the plight of millions\nof Russians and a pitiless report on the cynicism and corruption of\nVladimir Putin’s presidency.

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She interviews people whose lives have been devastated by\nPutin’s policies, including the mothers of children who died in the\nBeslan siege, those of Russian soldiers maimed in Chechnya then\nabandoned by the State, and of “disappeared” young men and women.\nElsewhere she meets traumatized and dangerous veterans of the\nChechen wars, and a notorious Chechen warlord in his fortified\nlair.

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Putin is re-elected as President in farcically undemocratic\ncircumstances and yet Western leaders, reliant on Russia’s oil and\ngas reserves, continue to pay him homage. Politkovskaya offers a\nchilling account of his dismantling of the democratic reforms made\nin the 1990s. She also criticizes the inability of liberals and\ndemocrats to provide a united, effective opposition and a\npopulation slow to protest against government legislative\noutrages.

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A Russian Diary is clear-sighted, passionate and marked\nwith the humanity that made Anna Politkovskaya known to many as\n“Russia’s lost moral conscience” and a heroine to readers\nthroughout the world.

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From the Trade Paperback edition.

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