{"product_id":"russian-diary-a-book-politkovskaya-9781846550461","title":"A Russian Diary, A","description":"A devastating account of contemporary Russia by a great and brave writer. A  Russian Diary is the book that Anna Politkovskaya had recently  completed when she was murdered in a contract killing in Moscow. It  covers the period from the Russian elections of December 2003 to the  tragic aftermath of the Beslan school siege in late 2005. The book is an  unflinching record of the plight of millions of Russians and a pitiless  report on the cynicism and corruption of Vladimir Putin's presidency. She  interviews people whose lives have been devastated by Putin's policies,  including the mothers of children who died in the Beslan siege, those  of Russian soldiers maimed in Chechnya then abandoned by the State, and  of \"disappeared\" young men and women. Elsewhere she meets traumatized  and dangerous veterans of the Chechen wars, and a notorious Chechen  warlord in his fortified lair. Putin is re-elected as President in  farcically undemocratic circumstances and yet Western leaders, reliant  on Russia's oil and gas reserves, continue to pay him homage.  Politkovskaya offers a chilling account of his dismantling of the  democratic reforms made in the 1990s. She also criticizes the inability  of liberals and democrats to provide a united, effective opposition and a  population slow to protest against government legislative outrages. A  Russian Diary is clear-sighted, passionate and marked with the humanity  that made Anna Politkovskaya known to many as \"Russia's lost moral  conscience\" and a heroine to readers throughout the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49587574604049,"sku":"GOR001981147","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391736025361,"sku":"CIN1846550467G","price":6.52,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846550467.jpg?v=1751280863","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/russian-diary-a-book-politkovskaya-9781846550461","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}