In a sequel to his sold-out talk last year, Mark Galeotti - author of The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia (Yale, 2018), one of the shortlisted books for the 2019 Pushkin House Book Prize - returns to the shadows. Whereas before he looked especially at the gory past of the Russian vorovskoi mir, its feared underworld subculture, now he will be turning his eyes to the current situation at home and abroad, and its likely evolution. While one embittered Russian investigator told him that everyone is a gangster now, Mark will explain why he remains "unfashionably optimistic" about Russia's future.
Reviews
“A fascinating look at Russia’s super mafia and their links to Putin’s secret services. . . . The book could not be more relevant in the midst of global recriminations—and a new round of American sanctions—against Russia.”—Matthew Campbell, Sunday Times
"To understand power in contemporary Russia, this is a must read."—Misha Glenny, author of McMafia
"Galeotti lays bare the lattices of power and influence between official Russia and its criminal organizations. This is the best guide to understanding the workings of the Kremlin since Mario Puzo's The Godfather."—Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Former President of Estonia
“The Vory masterfully combines the startling stories of Russian crime lords with deft and nuanced analysis— it terrifies yet deftly brings a sense of proportion to the problem.”—Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
“This book could not be more relevant. . . brilliant, gripping, astonishingly rich. . . filled with flamboyant gangsters, devious rackets, vicious hits, secret policemen, Kremlin leaders and criminal slang, at once a true-crime chronicle, a work of scholarship, an anthropological study, a political history of the fused underworld and upper echelons of Russian power — and essential reading.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard
Mark Galeotti is an honorary professor at UCL SSEES, senior associate fellow at RUSI and a non-resident senior fellow at the Institute of International Relations, Prague. As well as The Vory (which was also published in Russian in April), his recent books include We Need To Talk About Putin (Ebury, 2019) and Russian Political War (Routledge, 2019).
Twitter @MarkGaleotti