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The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB: 320

The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB: 320

by Andrei Soldatov (Author), IrinaBorogan (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2010

    $3.28
Synopsis

In the first book from inside Russia in more than fifteen years on the influence and role of the security services, two courageous journalists chart how the KGB rose from the Soviet ashes and recreated itself at the prompting and with the assistance of Vladimir Putin. In The New Nobility , two courageous Russian investigative journalists open up the closed and murky world of the Russian Federal Security Service. While Vladimir Putin has been president and prime minister of Russia, the Kremlin has deployed the security services to intimidate the political opposition, reassert the power of the state, and carry out assassinations overseas. At the same time, its agents and spies were put beyond public accountability and blessed with the prestige, benefits, and legitimacy lost since the Soviet collapse. The security services have played a central - and often mysterious - role at key turning points in Russia during these tumultuous years: from Moscow apartment house bombings and theater siege, to the war in Chechnya and the Beslan massacre. The security services are not all-powerful; they have made clumsy and sometimes catastrophic blunders. But what is clear is that after the chaotic 1990s, when they were sidelined, they have made a remarkable return to power, abetted by their most famous alumnus, Putin.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 320
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 14 Sep 2010
ISBN 10: 1586488023
ISBN 13: 9781586488024

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2010
A relentless investigation that demonstrates how, with Putin's rise, the KSB has taken its place 'at the head table of power and prestige in Russia.'

Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2010
Few people are better placed than Mr. Soldatov and Ms. Borogan to write with authority on this subject. They run the website Agentura.Ru, a magpie's nest of news and analysis that presents a well-informed view of the inner workings of this secret state. Given the fates that have befallen other investigative journalists in Russia in recent years, some might fear for the authors' safety. But the publication of the The New Nobility in English is welcome; it should be essential reading for those who hold naive hopes about Russia's development or who pooh-pooh the fears of its neighbors.

Foreign Policy, September 17, 2010
The authors bring hard-digging, fact-based journalism to an aspect of Russia that has been hard to document and understand... Sober and probing.

Basil and Spice, September 14, 2010
A non-fiction book that reads like a spy thriller... The New Nobility is an important book, well written and meticulously researched by two journalists with the right sources, both inside and outside the FSB.

Sunday Times (UK), September 19, 2010
This compelling book is a distillation of [Soldavov & Borogan's] work on the website. Drawing on considerable research it describes how the KGB, for decades at the violent vanguard of the communist dictatorship, switched effortlessly after the fall of the Soviet Union, preserving the stability of the new ultra-capitalist Kremlin; same people, many of the same methods, different name and economic system.

The Guardian, September 25, 2010
Because every page in this book gainsays his claim in the most forceful fashion imaginable that democracy is now decisive in defining Russia's political direction.... It is the product of two profoundly courageous Russia


Moscow Times, November 12, 2010
Fortunately there are inquisitive and intrepid journalists like Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan to bring nuance, analysis and old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting to the subject of the revival of Russia's security services.... The authors pull no punches in their criticism of endemic corruption and incompetence in the country's security forces. But they do so with a refreshing lack of hysteria, drawing conclusions from facts they were able to document and refusing to indulge in conspiracy theory.

Literary Review, December 2010
This important monograph, written by a brave and talented team, is a history of the KGB (now called the FSB) over the last fifteen years.

New Statesman, December 6, 2010
Drawing on extensive investigations, the two journalists have written a gripping account of how veterans of the KGB seized control of the Russian state... This book paints a chilling picture of a country dominated by a power-hungry clique. Anyone who wants to understand Putin's brave new Russia should read it. Financial World (UK), December 2010 A thorough and very brave examination of an organization that has a tight political, commercial and economic grip on Russia
The Guardian, October 3, 2010
If all of this still feels too frivolous, turn to The New Nobility, an inside look at the KGB by a pair of fearless Russian journalists, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan. Charting the organisation's heyday, decline and creeping return to power, it promises to raise the hairs on your neck as effectively as Ackroyd's ghost stories.
Financial Times, October 18, 2010
A detailed dissection of the FSB, the heir to the KGB, which still casts a long shadow over Moscow. For more than a decade the two authors have run the website Agentura.ru, a gold mine of information on the inner workings of the security services, particularly the FSB. In a country where many journalists have been attacked or killed for speaking truth to power, their reporting has been brave.
Mother Jones, November 2010
The New Nobility is an unnerving look at the real power behind the new Russia.

Russian Life
For those looking for yet more evidence that the security services are pulling the strings in modern Russia, look no further than this extraordinary new book from the fearless journalists at agentura.ru. Soldatov (who has written for Russian Life) and Borogan have compiled a history of FSB activities and operations over the past decade that paint a very vivid picture of a security service that has become Russia's new ruling class... With amazing accounts of some of the most significant security crises and counter-terrorist activities of the past decade, Soldatov and Borogan offer insights into FSB operations that have not been offered anywhere to date... A must read. Irish Times, October 30, 2010 Impressively detailed and unsettling... Soldatov and Borogan have done an excellent job in shining a light in some of Russia's darkest corners.
Author Bio
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are co-founders of the Agentura.Ru website. Soldatov worked for Novaya Gazeta from January 2006-November 2008. Agentura.Ru has been reported and featured in the New York Times, the Moscow Times, the Washington Post, Online Journalism Review, Le Monde, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, Federation of American Scientists, BBC, as well in websites of The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Center for Defence Information, The Library of Congress, Cambridge Security Programme. Agentura.Ru is quoted by The New York Times as A Web Site That Came in From the Cold to Unveil Russian Secrets .