Who Lost Russia?: How the World Entered a New Cold War

by Peter Conradi

Overview

How did we get from the end of the Cold War to Trump and Putin?

‘A must read for anyone interested in the future of Europe and the world as a whole.’ Serhii Plokhy, author of The Last Empire

An essential insight into Russia’s relations with Ukraine, the US and beyond

Why did Vladimir Putin launch his catastrophic invasion of Ukraine in February 2022? And how much are failures of Western policy towards Russia since the end of Communism to blame for the bloodiest war on European soil since 1945? These are the questions at the heart of Who Lost Russia?, an updated edition of which Oneworld will be publishing this July. In the original version of this book, critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic when it appeared in 2017, Peter Conradi, Europe Editor of The Sunday Times, analysed the series of mistakes and misunderstandings on both sides since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. This new edition contains 15,000 words of original material that brings the story bang up to date, examining the events leading to the invasion and setting out what the conflict will mean for the future of Europe and the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786072528
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	617,217
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Peter Conradi is the foreign editor of The Sunday Times. During his six years as foreign correspondent in Moscow, he witnessed the USSR’s collapse first-hand. His previous books include Hitler’s Piano Player and The King’s Speech, co-authored with Mark Logue, which inspired the Oscar-winning film. He lives in Lambeth, South London.

Table of Contents

Map vii

Chronology ix

Preface xv

Introduction xvii

I The Time of Troubles

1 The ties that bind 3

2 The boys in pink trousers 20

3 In search of a new Marshall Plan 30

4 Stockholm Syndrome 40

5 Eastward bound 55

6 Bill and OI' Boris 67

7 A fatal error? 76

8 Kosovo 92

II Rebirth

9 A new start 105

10 A sense of Putin's soul 128

11 From 9/11 to Iraq 138

12 'Mission Accomplished' 152

13 The Colour Revolutions 162

14 Munich 176

15 The trap 186

III The Hot Peace

16 Overload 207

17 Silicon Valley 220

18 The return of the chief 229

19 Ukraine 247

20 A piece of paradise 261

21 'You do it too' 278

22 Towards Eurasia 294

23 The Siberian Candidate 308

24 The Trump presidency 328

25 Three faces of Russia 344

Epilogue 359

Acknowledgements 365

Notes 367

Index 385

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The West has always struggled to comprehend the byzantine workings of Russia, not just during the Cold War but even more so in the post-communist era. This important book presents a crucial analysis of the rise of Putin and our continuing inability to read him. Few people are as well placed as Peter Conradi, who witnessed the collapse of Communist Russia 25 years ago first hand as a Moscow correspondent, to present such an important and revealing study as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. This is a book to which we all need to pay attention."

—Helen Rappaport, author of Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917

"Peter Conradi takes a calm, considered look at developments in East–West relations that threaten to divide the world. In an era of inflamed partisan debate, he provides the historical context vital for a rational assessment of where we stand and where we are headed.’

—Martin Sixsmith, author of Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East

Editorial Reviews

‘To understand what went wrong in Russia over the last few decades and the impact it has had on the world, one can’t find a better guide than this well researched and argued book – a must read for anyone interested in the future of Europe and the world as a whole.’

Serhii Plokhy

‘Fast-moving and utterly compelling and spans the decades revealingly.’

Irish Independent

‘A timely account of the diplomatic history of what increasingly looks like a new Cold War... Nervous Europeans might like to send Conradi’s book to the White House.’

The Times

‘The West has always struggled to comprehend the byzantine workings of Russia, not just during the Cold War but even more so in the post-communist era. This important book presents a crucial analysis of the rise of Putin and our continuing inability to read him. Few people are as well placed as Peter Conradi, who witnessed the collapse of Communist Russia 25 years ago first hand as a Moscow correspondent, to present such an important and revealing study as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. This is a book to which we all need to pay attention.’

Helen Rappaport

‘Elegantly written, informed...provides many valuable insights into our times.’

Evening Standard

‘As NATO and the West come to terms with a Russia which, in the words of Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Moscow Carnegie Centre, believes it has been at war with the West since 2014, the risks of miscalculation and the potential for catastrophe have not been higher since the end of the Cold War. Who Lost Russia? lays out, with startling clarity and precision, the steps that have led us to the present situation. Understanding is the pre-requisite for the development of strategy. This book provides that essential understanding and should be compulsory reading for our political leadership, and the policymakers who support them, together with the general reader.’

General Sir Richard Shirreff

‘How the world careened from one cold war into another with a friendly but all too brief pit stop between them is the subject of this quite wonderful book. Bringing to bear his seven years as a Moscow correspondent, and a gift for clear, sparkling prose, Peter Conradi’s spirited, well-informed narrative brings to life the ups and downs, colourful characters, and turning points that didn’t turn along the way.’

William Taubman

‘Nuanced yet fast-paced, this is the essential guide to our rocky relationship with a country we ignored at our peril. Russia is back at the top of the news: and this book couldn’t be more timely.’

Peter Pomerantsev

‘Seamlessly written...it is fascinating to read the author’s summary of Russia’s actions in Syria in the context of recent events.’

Wall Street Journal

‘Peter Conradi is a cool-headed and even-handed guide to the past 25 years of Western-Russian relations...It is refreshing to read so well-written and dispassionate an account.’

New Statesman

‘Skilfully constructed.’

Sunday Times

‘Manages to tell a complex story...with a much-needed sense of balance. The author’s skill in seamlessly linking historical events to present-day international relations makes this book an insightful and rewarding read.’

Prospect

‘Profoundly important.’

Country Life

‘Conradi wisely examines the forest’s contours, avoiding the trees. He writes engagingly and enlivens his smart, balanced analysis with colorful anecdotes.’

New York Times Book Review

‘Peter Conradi takes a calm, considered look at developments in East–West relations that threaten to divide the world. In an era of inflamed partisan debate, he provides the historical context vital for a rational assessment of where we stand and where we are headed.’

Martin Sixsmith

‘Engrossing.’

Mail on Sunday

‘Fast-paced, comprehensive, solidly researched and, most importantly, essential reading for anyone who wants to understand one of the great crises of our times...uncannily up-to-the-minute...this book couldn’t be better timed.’

Literary Review Owen Matthews

'Essential reading.'

The Herald

‘Authoritative and readable.’

Daily Mail

‘Clear, thought-provoking, disturbing. Anyone who wants to understand the rise of Vladimir Putin and the resurgence of Russian nationalism should read Peter Conradi’s impeccably researched and impressive book.’

Victor Sebestyen

‘Seamlessly written...it is fascinating to read the author’s summary of Russia’s actions in Syria in the context of recent events.’

Wall Street Journal

‘A timely account of the diplomatic history of what increasingly looks like a new Cold War... Nervous Europeans might like to send Conradi’s book to the White House.’

The Times

‘Authoritative and readable.’

Daily Mail

Conradi wisely examines the forest's contours, avoiding the trees. He writes engagingly and enlivens his smart, balanced analysis with colorful anecdotes…Conradi [discusses] the West's missteps, but he also focuses on the internal developments that shaped Russia's course. And he is attentive to Russians' views…

The New York Times Book Review - Rajan Menon

★ 02/27/2017
In this balanced and timely work, Sunday Times foreign editor Conradi (The Great Survivors) charts the complex and turbulent course of U.S.-Russia relations since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., and investigates how the end of the Cold War failed to result in either conciliation or superpower cooperation. Working from exclusive interviews with principal players and assorted other sources, Conradi details how occasional moments of tentative cooperation—arms control deals, post-9/11 collaboration, the Iran nuclear deal—have masked a relationship fraught with tension, fundamentally different perspectives, and mutual misunderstandings. Russia’s primary sources of concern include NATO’s “relentless march eastward,” the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, perceived American political malfeasance in former Soviet territories, and Washington’s insistence on a U.S.-centered unipolar world order that ignores Russia’s desire to be treated respectfully and “as an equal.” Such factors, Conradi argues, contributed to Russia’s “sense of humiliation and encirclement.” The U.S. has taken issue with Russian President Putin’s growing domestic authoritarianism and “newfound assertiveness” abroad: intervention in Georgia, support for separatists in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea, and a role in the Syrian Civil War. Conradi blends these developments into a smooth narrative that provides welcome context for Russia’s recent revanchist behavior and insight into prospects for ongoing U.S.-Russian relations. Agent: Andrew Nurnberg, Andrew Nurnberg Associates (U.K.). (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"A systematic account of Russia's emergence from the wreckage of the Soviet Union with a renewed sense of authoritarian mission.There isn't really anybody to blame for "losing" Russia except for "its own creators." In this painstaking account, Sunday Times foreign editor Conradi (The Great Survivors: How Monarchy Made It into the Twenty-First Century, 2012, etc.) meticulously lays out the record, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin. The author emphasizes that with the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russians were more preoccupied with their own economic viability than with political woes—a fair assessment considering the sudden collapse of price controls in the early 1990s and rise of hyperinflation. As privatization was carried out painfully in Russia under Boris Yeltsin, the West did not lend its aid in a gushing "new Marshall Plan." The minority countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain moved for independence, prompting military action in 1994 against Chechnya and a conflicted reaction by the Russian people and consternation by the Bill Clinton administration. The enlargement of NATO delighted the U.S. but alarmed the Russians, while the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and loss of Ukraine compounded Russia's isolation. Conradi notes that all Russia needed, at the end of Yeltsin's regime, was "a figure able to harness this sense of grievance and thirst for revenge," and Yeltsin handpicked his successor in former KGB officer Putin in late 1999. After assuming power, Putin gradually slid into old Soviet-style authoritarianism—e.g., the arrest and Siberian exile of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, head of the oil giant Yukos; the Russian storming of the school taken hostage in Beslan, North Ossetia, in September 2004; and the resistance to the detaching of Ukraine from Russia's orbit and invasion of Crimea in 2014, among other developments. Despite the "reset" button pushed by President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Putin has continued to show a desire to re-create the lost Soviet empire. A cold-eyed examination of recent Russian history that seems to show that there was never a solid plan to integrate Russia into the West."

—Kirkus Reviews

"In this balanced and timely work, Sunday Times foreign editor Conradi ( The Great Survivors ) charts the complex and turbulent course of U.S.-Russia relations since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., and investigates how the end of the Cold War failed to result in either conciliation or superpower cooperation. Working from exclusive interviews with principal players and assorted other

sources, Conradi details how occasional moments of tentative cooperation—arms control deals, post-9/11 collaboration, the Iran nuclear deal—have masked a relationship fraught with tension, fundamentally different

perspectives, and mutual misunderstandings. Russia’s primary sources of concern include NATO’s “relentless march eastward,” the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, perceived American political malfeasance in former Soviet territories, and Washington’s insistence on a U.S.-centered unipolar world order that ignores Russia’s desire to be treated respectfully and “as an equal.” Such factors, Conradi argues, contributed to Russia’s “sense of humiliation and encirclement.” The U.S. has taken issue with Russian President Putin’s growing domestic authoritarianism and “newfound assertiveness” abroad: intervention in Georgia, support for separatists in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea, and a role in the Syrian Civil War. Conradi blends these developments into a smooth narrative that provides welcome context for Russia’s recent revanchist behavior and insight into prospects for ongoing U.S.-Russian relations. "


—★ Publishers Weeky, Starred Review

From the Publisher

04/01/2017
Journalist Conradi (foreign editor, Sunday Times) has authored a fine narrative of postcommunist Russia's relations with the United States and Europe. Its subtitle implies comparisons with relations to the former Soviet Union, and surely they emerge. The geography of conflict still includes NATO, the Middle East, and Yugoslavia's successors. Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy decisions seem no less challenged than those of Joseph Stalin, and Putin's legitimizing doctrine of "Eurasianism" packs the same anti-Western punch as communism once did. Conversely, the former organizing role of nuclear deterrence has diminished. The practice of summitry languishes, as successive U.S. administrations find thwarted initial attempts at better communications with the Kremlin. However, Conradi does not spare criticism of Western policy. Some readers might dispute his assertion that the "main reason" for Russia's Crimean annexation emerged from "fear" that NATO would expel Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol should Ukraine join the alliance. VERDICT While a balanced, detailed, and workman-like account of international politics over the last quarter century, this book is unlikely to be the last word on "the new cold war."—Zachary Irwin, Behrend Coll., Pennsylvania State Erie

Library Journal

2017-02-02
A systematic account of Russia's emergence from the wreckage of the Soviet Union with a renewed sense of authoritarian mission.There isn't really anybody to blame for "losing" Russia except for "its own creators." In this painstaking account, Sunday Times foreign editor Conradi (The Great Survivors: How Monarchy Made It into the Twenty-First Century, 2012, etc.) meticulously lays out the record, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin. The author emphasizes that with the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russians were more preoccupied with their own economic viability than with political woes—a fair assessment considering the sudden collapse of price controls in the early 1990s and rise of hyperinflation. As privatization was carried out painfully in Russia under Boris Yeltsin, the West did not lend its aid in a gushing "new Marshall Plan." The minority countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain moved for independence, prompting military action in 1994 against Chechnya and a conflicted reaction by the Russian people and consternation by the Bill Clinton administration. The enlargement of NATO delighted the U.S. but alarmed the Russians, while the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and loss of Ukraine compounded Russia's isolation. Conradi notes that all Russia needed, at the end of Yeltsin's regime, was "a figure able to harness this sense of grievance and thirst for revenge," and Yeltsin handpicked his successor in former KGB officer Putin in late 1999. After assuming power, Putin gradually slid into old Soviet-style authoritarianism—e.g., the arrest and Siberian exile of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, head of the oil giant Yukos; the Russian storming of the school taken hostage in Beslan, North Ossetia, in September 2004; and the resistance to the detaching of Ukraine from Russia's orbit and invasion of Crimea in 2014, among other developments. Despite the "reset" button pushed by President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Putin has continued to show a desire to re-create the lost Soviet empire. A cold-eyed examination of recent Russian history that seems to show that there was never a solid plan to integrate Russia into the West.

Kirkus Reviews