Lucas E.: The New Cold War

No longer the sick man of Europe, Russia is run by an authoritarian ex-KGB regime with the cash to put its ideas into practice. Under Vladimir Putin's autocratic rule, it silences its critics and bullies its neighbours. The murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Aleksander Litvinenko have sent a grim warning to other critics and the sham presidential "election" in 2008 that put Dmitri Medvedev in the Kremlin as Putin's hand-picked successor showed how Russia's rulers, not the voters, dictate the country's political future. "The New Cold War" explains the Kremlin's use of energy blockades and trade sanctions, military sabre-rattling and propaganda wars against its neighbours - and why a divided and demoralized West is responding so feebly. Revised and updated following Russia's attack on Georgia, this is an incisive and disturbing account of why we are perilously close to defeat - and how we can still win.