The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces Both Russia and the West

With a preface by Norman Davies, author of Europe: A History. Revised and updated following Russia's attack on Georgia. In the 1990s, Russia was the sick man of Europe, but the rise to power of former KGB officer Vladimir Putin in 1999 coincided with a huge hike in world oil and gas prices, and after Yeltsin's downfall Putin set about re-establishing Russian autocracy. Now with its massive gas and oil reserves Russia has not only paid off its debts but amassed huge cash reserves which it is investing in easily accessible European businesses. Putin's Russia is hostile to open debate. Critics inside Russia such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and opponents abroad such as the defector Alexander Litvinenko, a British subject, have been assassinated. Russia has threatened to target its nuclear missiles on America's allies in eastern Europe. It has resumed the military bullying of its neighbours, including repeated airspace violations; its generals play war games involving the recapture of the Baltic states. These are familiar tactics, but a whole new breed of Kremlin dirty tricks is still more sinister. The cyber-attacks on Estonia in May 2007 showed Russia was ready to wipe a country off the online map. Russia is stitching up Europe's gas market, giving it huge influence both within and on Europe. Many people, out of naivete or greed, deny the existence of the problem. Russia has so far sidelined America, its most formidable opponent in the last cold war: America needs Russia co-operation on North Korea, Iran and the Middle East, leaving the way clear for the Kremlin. The New Cold War explains both the Kremlin's tactics and the West's weaknesses. Why we are perilously close to defeat and - and how we can still win.

About the Author :
Edward Lucas is currently Deputy Editor, International Section, Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Economist. He has been covering central and Eastern Europe since 1986. He was based in the Baltic states from 1990 to 1994, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union and, from 1992, as the managing editor of The Baltic Independent, a weekly English-language newspaper published in Tallinn. He holds a BSc from the London School of Economics, and studied Polish at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow. The New Cold War is his first book.

Review :
'Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what is happening in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union today.' Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag 'It is high time for the West to analyse the facts ... and work out a counter-strategy.' Vladimir Bukovsky, Soviet political dissident and Russian presidential candidate 'We can only hope that, like Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton in 1946, this book will be a wake-up call for Western civilization.' Mart Laar, former Prime Minister of Estonia 'Absorbing ... an invaluable primer for students of the Russian situation and a cautionary tale for those who prefer to treat Russia as it pretends to be rather than as it is.' David Satter, author of Darkness at Dawn