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A review by gothicgunslinger
The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin by David Satter
5.0
This book is aptly named. A crash course history on Russia's post-Soviet era, much of it containing assertions so shocking to the Western conscience that I found myself often checking end notes and following up with Google searches so I could find the source material. But they were sound, and David Satter himself is no slouch – with four decades as a Russian correspondent, he conducted some of the most hair-raising research firsthand. And I've seen glimmers of the thesis he puts forth in my own research, but he puts it all together and lays it out in a straightforward, deeply disturbing sequence of events.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the allegations put forth by Satter is that some of them, particularly the terrorist attacks as provocations or at the very least sanctioned by the government, are impossible to definitively prove. As such, they come across as conspiracy-minded, as other reviewers have noted. However, considering there are no official reports with evidence presented by the Russian government, circumstantial evidence, as Satter himself states, is all one has to go by. Satter's tone, although sober, is never inflammatory, and he provides examples and cited sources. This puts even the most unlikely scenarios firmly in the realm of possible, if not probable. The Russian state has long made a practice of obfuscating truth to keep a hold on power, and one only has to turn on the news in 2017 to see how Putin has exported these same tactics.
Anyone who wants to know what's going on in present day Russia – and how it might relate to the current American predicament – should give this a read... and prepare yourself for some sleepless nights.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the allegations put forth by Satter is that some of them, particularly the terrorist attacks as provocations or at the very least sanctioned by the government, are impossible to definitively prove. As such, they come across as conspiracy-minded, as other reviewers have noted. However, considering there are no official reports with evidence presented by the Russian government, circumstantial evidence, as Satter himself states, is all one has to go by. Satter's tone, although sober, is never inflammatory, and he provides examples and cited sources. This puts even the most unlikely scenarios firmly in the realm of possible, if not probable. The Russian state has long made a practice of obfuscating truth to keep a hold on power, and one only has to turn on the news in 2017 to see how Putin has exported these same tactics.
Anyone who wants to know what's going on in present day Russia – and how it might relate to the current American predicament – should give this a read... and prepare yourself for some sleepless nights.