A concise, scholarly look at the rise of crime in post-Soviet Russia.
An Oxford criminologist profiles a small group of perpetrators and their outsize role in modern Russia.
In this concise volume, Varese, who studies organized crime, examines the nature of unlawful activity in Russia from the 1980s to the present. First is Vyacheslav Ivan’kov, a mobster who became the “most feared” representative of the vory v zakone, or “thieves in law,” a sect of “professional criminals who follow a code of honour.” Next is Boris Berezovsky, a powerful businessman who was “instrumental in ensuring Putin’s election” in 2000, then made a white-collar fugitive when Putin turned against the oligarchs who aided his rise to power. Sergei Savely’ev, the subject of the book’s third section, is distinguished not by his crime (drug trafficking) but by his actions during his incarceration, when he leaked videos of prison torture and rape to a human rights group, proving that the state had “condoned and indeed encouraged the mass rape of convicts.” The final section of the book deals with Nikita Kuzmin, the young inventor of the “world’s most powerful computer virus, Gozi.” While Varese does provide the occasional colorful detail (noting, for example, that 26-year-old Kuzmin longed to purchase a Playboy Russiaphotoshoot for his then girlfriend), the book is less interested in its subjects as individuals than as emblems of larger issues in the “macro history of Russia.” Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the 1980s, Varese argues, failed to equip the new economy with protections for fair exchanges, thus informal enforcers like Ivan’kov emerged. In the case of cybercrime, the state is increasingly forced to turned to “freelance criminals” to carry out their operations. This is an intellectually rigorous book, compellingly argued and crisply written.
A concise, scholarly look at the rise of crime in post-Soviet Russia.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781509563609
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Polity
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
A sharply different deconstruction of the prevailing orthodoxy, worthy of attention.
Leverett (International Affairs/Pennsylvania State Univ.; Inheriting Syria: Bashir's Trial by Fire, 2005) and his wife, Hillary, argue that, unless it changes, “the United States’ Iran policy is locked in a trajectory…that will ultimately lead to war.”
The authors take on what they identify as “a powerful mythology” that continues to influence U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic—primarily, the proposition that because it is unpopular, the regime “is in imminent danger of being overthrown.” They offer an alternative to the prevailing view that Khomeini and his supporters hijacked the liberal revolution that began in 1978 and “betrayed the aspirations of those who actually carried out the campaign that deposed the shah.” The Leveretts take issue with American policymakers who propose that the U.S. should advocate the overthrow of the present regime in favor of liberal democracy. They believe in the possibility of negotiating with the present regime. The authors dispute the view that the mullahs have done nothing for the population and lack support, showing how literacy, health and medical care have been upgraded and the economy developed. They highlight present concerns about the Iranian nuclear program, which they claim are exaggerated. They identify the continuing influence of the neoconservatives, who brought about the second Iraq war, and “liberal internationalists,” who are ready to deploy military force in support of human rights. They believe that the time has come for an initiative like Nixon's visit to Beijing to begin a change in course.
A sharply different deconstruction of the prevailing orthodoxy, worthy of attention.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9419-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
A fresh perspective on a familiar subject.
The American Revolution reframed as “a world war in all but name.”
The struggle of 13 North American colonies for independence from Great Britain quickly turned into a global conflict, writes Bell, a professor of history at the University of Maryland. Patriot leaders cultivated the support of England’s major rivals, France, Spain, and the Netherlands, which began by covertly supplying the rebels with weapons and by 1779 were engaging in open warfare. French and Spanish fleets turned the Caribbean into a major battlefront, forcing England to send troops from North America to protect its precious “sugar islands,” while American privateers inflicted huge losses on British merchant ships and boosted the rebel colonies’ economy. A separate Spanish-British war in Florida and South America also weakened England’s attempt to suppress the independence, as did French efforts to incite revolts in India against British rule. The repercussions after Americans won their independence also extended beyond the Eastern seaboard. Spain and Britain both tightened their controls over remaining colonies. Native American tribes lost what little protection England had provided against white settlers’ incursions on their lands, which grew increasingly aggressive after independence. Enslaved African Americans who fought for Britain on the basis of promises of freedom were resettled first in Nova Scotia and then in Sierra Leone; their odyssey is the subject of a particularly fascinating chapter. Bell’s international emphasis occasionally leads him to overreach, as when he claims that the 1780 anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in London were “also an expression of popular opposition to the American war,” but his basic argument is sound (and there was considerable antiwar sentiment in England). Based on solid and deep research, his book is written in clear, accessible prose—with entertaining minutiae such as the fact that the minutemen at Lexington and Concord fired guns made in Spain—that will appeal to general readers with an interest in history.
A fresh perspective on a familiar subject.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593719510
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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