From Russia with Blood: Putin’s Ruthless Killing Campaign and Secret War on the West - Hardcover

Blake, Heidi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0008300054 ISBN 13: 9780008300050

Publisher: William Collins, 2019

Synopsis

Orwell Prize-nominated journalist Heidi Blake uncovers exclusive details of Vladimir Putin’s worldwide meddling with dissident voices. This is the explosive and true story of how Russia operates in our cities, right under the noses of the most powerful nations in the world, and why even they can’t stop him.

Russia’s resurgent encroachment into the West is the defining geopolitical story of our time – and a topic of insatiable public fascination. Putin’s use of targeted killing is designed to crush opponents, frighten critics into silence, exterminate traitors, and wipe out the Western financial facilitators who make flight from Russia possible. In one sense this is nothing new: the Russian president is the consummate FSB man and an heir to Soviet-era autocrats who used the country’s feared security service to eliminate all opposition. But the growing pattern of brazen assassinations outside Russia’s borders is a mark of an emboldened state with burgeoning global ambitions.

Set in the heart of our cities, From Russia With Blood will analyze the geopolitical consequences of this strategy, and the dangers of the West’s flat-footed response. Drawing on the expertise of Russian experts, intelligence insiders, academics and government sources in the US and Europe, Heidi Blake will uncover what has been kept from the public up until now. This book is based on hundreds of thousands of documents, crime scene evidence, computers and mobile phones, surveillance footage, high-level intelligence briefings from serving officials, and hundreds of insider interviews – but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Supported by a vibrant cast of characters and a fast-paced narrative, this story will draw on original reporting to tell the full story of how Russia refined the art and science of assassination as a form of statecraft. But it will also offer insights into its formidable cyber powers, sprawling international propaganda machine and fearsome security, espionage and organised crime complex to create a frighteningly effective strategy for growing global dominance. This is an unmissable guide to how Western governments failed to guard those living on home soil against the threat, the dramatic events of the past year and their alarming significance for the future.

About this title

Review:

Praise for ‘The Ugly Game’ by Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert:

'Never before has bribe-giving been documented in such graphic detail' Independent

'The most comprehensive account of the affair to date' Radio Times

'There's an urgency about the storytelling as the authors manage to extract excruciating tension from the unpromising materials available to them' The Secret Footballer

'An explosive account of the biggest World Cup heist since the trophy was nicked in the 1960s' Sport

'Truly stunning journalism' Four Four Two

About the Author:

Heidi Blake is BuzzFeed’s UK Investigations Editor. Her multi-award winning team of reporters has uncovered explosive evidence of 14 Russian assassinations on British soil, widespread match-fixing at the top of world tennis, the identities of two masked ISIS executioners responsible for dozens of beheadings, money laundering by the Conservative Party’s biggest financial backer, rampant corruption in Britain’s prisons, deliberate customer abuse by the UK’s biggest bank, and the use of hundreds of illegal raids by Britain’s leading crime agency. Heidi was previously Assistant Editor of The Sunday Times, attached to the Insight investigations team, where her work on corruption at FIFA helped bring down Sepp Blatter. She is the co-author of The Ugly Game (Scribner, 2015), a devastating account of the Qatari plot to buy the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and has won 18 national and international media awards including Scoop of the Year, Investigation of the Year and the Paul Foot Award for Campaigning and Investigative Journalism. She was named Digital Journalist of 2016 by the London Press Club and ranked on last year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list of the most influential young media professionals in Europe.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0008300054
• ISBN 13: 9780008300050
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352