Black Wind, White Snow

A fascinating study of the root motivations behind the political activities and philosophies of Putin`s government in Russia "Part intellectual history, part portrait gallery . . . Black Wind, White Snow traces the background to Putin`s ideas with verve and clarity."-Geoffrey Hosking, Financial Times "Required reading. This is a vivid, panoramic history of bad ideas, chasing the metastasis of the doctrine known as Eurasianism. . . . Reading Charles Clover will help you understand the world of lies and delusions that is Eurasia."-Ben Judah, Standpoint Charles Clover, award-winning journalist and former Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, here analyzes the idea of "Eurasianism," a theory of Russian national identity based on ethnicity and geography. Clover traces Eurasianism`s origins in the writings of white Russian exiles in 1920s Europe, through Siberia`s Gulag archipelago in the 1950s, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and up to its steady infiltration of the governing elite around Vladimir Putin. This eye-opening analysis pieces together the evidence for Eurasianism`s place at the heart of Kremlin thinking today and explores its impact on recent events, the annexation of Crimea, and the rise in Russia of anti-Western paranoia and imperialist rhetoric, as well as Putin`s sometimes perplexing political actions and ambitions. Based on extensive research and dozens of interviews with Putin`s close advisers, this quietly explosive story will be essential reading for anyone concerned with Russia`s past century, and its future.