Martin Sixsmith

Když Alexandr Litviněnko odcházel onoho listopadového rána roku 2006 ze svého londýnského domu, neměl sebemenší tušení, že se záhy stane „prvním doloženým případem mezinárodního jaderného terorismu v dějinách“. Jeho smrt na otravu poloniem nebyla jen výslednicí nečistých zájmů temných obchodních kruhů a zpravodajských služeb, ale předznamenala také začátek nové, ještě nelítostnější fáze boje vedeného mezi kremelskou nomenklaturou a ruskou exilovou opozicí – a v širším smyslu také mezi stále sebevědomějším Ruskem a hodnotami představovanými Západem. Autor Martin Sixsmith, dlouholetý zpravodaj BBC v Rusku, většinu hlavních protagonistů knihy zná osobně a orientuje se dobře i v jejich prostředí. Díky tomu může rekonstruovat jednotlivé události vedoucí k Litviněnkově vraždě a pokouší se odhalit totožnost lidí, kteří Litviněnka otrávili, i těch, kdo jim k tomu dali rozkaz. Zdá se totiž, že vrahem nebyl v tomto případě jednotlivec, ale v přeneseném smyslu celá mocenská mašinerie vedená autoritativním ruským prezidentem Vladimírem Putinem.

A major new history of the Cold War: exploring the conflict through the minds of the people who lived it. More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures - not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts, and fears. Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Revisiting towering personalities like Khrushchev, Kennedy and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping account of fear itself - and in today's uncertain times, it is more resonant than ever.

'I'm a fairly calm fellow; I don't usually get het up about things. But I was, let's say, concerned when I tuned into the Moscow Echo radio station and heard that the Kremlin had put a price on my head. The announcement didn't quite say 'dead or alive'. But it came close...' Mikhail Khodorkovsky, March 2021 Mikhail Khodorkovsky has seen behind the mask of Vladimir Putin. Once an oil tycoon and the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out against the corruption of Putin's regime - and was punished by the Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth and jailed for over ten years. Now freed, working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforced exile, Khodorkovsky brings us the insider's battle to save his country's soul. Offering an urgent analysis of what has gone wrong with Putin, The Russia Conundrum maps the country's rise and fall against Khodorkovsky's own journey, from Soviet youth to international oil executive, powerful insider to political dissident, and now a high-profile voice seeking to reconcile East and West. With unparalleled insight, written with Sunday Times bestselling author Martin Sixsmith, The Russia Conundrum exposes the desires and damning truths of Putin's Russia, and provides an answer to the West on how it must challenge the Kremlin - in order to pave the way for a better future.

Když Alexandr Litviněnko odcházel onoho listopadového rána roku 2006 ze svého londýnského domu, neměl sebemenší tušení, že se záhy stane „prvním doloženým případem mezinárodního jaderného terorismu v dějinách“. Jeho smrt na otravu poloniem nebyla jen výslednicí nečistých zájmů temných obchodních kruhů a zpravodajských služeb, ale předznamenala také začátek nové, ještě nelítostnější fáze boje vedeného mezi kremelskou nomenklaturou a ruskou exilovou opozicí – a v širším smyslu také mezi stále sebevědomějším Ruskem a hodnotami představovanými Západem. Autor Martin Sixsmith, dlouholetý zpravodaj BBC v Rusku, většinu hlavních protagonistů knihy zná osobně a orientuje se dobře i v jejich prostředí. Díky tomu může rekonstruovat jednotlivé události vedoucí k Litviněnkově vraždě a pokouší se odhalit totožnost lidí, kteří Litviněnka otrávili, i těch, kdo jim k tomu dali rozkaz. Zdá se totiž, že vrahem nebyl v tomto případě jednotlivec, ale v přeneseném smyslu celá mocenská mašinerie vedená autoritativním ruským prezidentem Vladimírem Putinem.

More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures - not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts, and fears. Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Revisiting towering personalities like Khrushchev, Kennedy and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping account of fear itself - and in today's uncertain times, it is more resonant than ever.

'I'm a fairly calm fellow; I don't usually get het up about things. But I was, let's say, concerned when I tuned into the Moscow Echo radio station and heard that the Kremlin had put a price on my head. The announcement didn't quite say 'dead or alive'. But it came close...' Mikhail Khodorkovsky, March 2021 Mikhail Khodorkovsky has seen behind the mask of Vladimir Putin. Once an oil tycoon and the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out against the corruption of Putin's regime - and was punished by the Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth and jailed for over ten years. Now freed, working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforced exile, Khodorkovsky brings us the insider's battle to save his country's soul. Offering an urgent analysis of what has gone wrong with Putin, The Russia Conundrum maps the country's rise and fall against Khodorkovsky's own journey, from Soviet youth to international oil executive, powerful insider to political dissident, and now a high-profile voice seeking to reconcile East and West. With unparalleled insight, written with Sunday Times bestselling author Martin Sixsmith, The Russia Conundrum exposes the desires and damning truths of Putin's Russia, and provides an answer to the West on how it must challenge the Kremlin - in order to pave the way for a better future.

Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has reshaped history. In the decades after the collapse of Soviet communism, the West convinced itself that liberal democracy would henceforth be the dominant, ultimately unique, system of governance. An outburst of Western triumphalism proclaimed a US-led unipolar world entitled to 'impose democracy' on countries that failed to recognise the new order. Politicians foretold the universalisation of Western values as the final, enduring form of human society, a hubris that shaped how the West would treat Russia for the next two decades. But history wasn't over. Subsequent events proved it is unwise to make predictions, especially about the future. In February 2022, Vladimir Putin took great delight in proving it. Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad. So, what happened? Was he lying when he proclaimed his support for freedom, democracy and friendship with the West? Or, was he sincere? Did he change his views at some stage between then and now? And if that is the case, what happened to change him? Putin and the Return of History examines these questions in the context of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics of aggression: the enduring terror of encirclement by outsiders, the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the state, the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human lives in battle, the willingness to lie and deceive, the co-opting of religion and the belief in Great Russia's mission to change the world.