This book was published in 2014 right after Crimea annexation and it reads a bit like a prequel to today‘s horrors. It‘s written for a Western reader and in general I didn‘t find a lot of new information, but it did help me to fill some gaps (I left Russia 20 years ago and never lived there as an adult). And some things that were true back then didn‘t change. It‘s a good primer, even if sometimes the book structure felt somewhat shaky.