“The more things change, the more things stay the same,” the old saying goes. That unfortunately seems to apply to the once-promising days after Ronald Reagan’s infamous “… tear down this wall…” speech.

Reading Putin's Russia makes one long for the gold old days of Boris Yeltsin. Although Anna Politkovskaya wrote this book before the nauseating polonium assassination, this book lays the groundwork for that particular action as not only believable but quite likely. With instances of brutality, corruption and mindless racism, one cannot help but wonder if the infamous gulags of old are very far behind.

Putin's Russia is more than just a good a book, although it is definitely that; it is also a warning that the past often repeats itself. Let us hope that the progression, or should I say regression, from Peter the Great to Vladimir Lenin does not ever add Vladimir Putin to the legacy of violence that once, more than once, ruled Mother Russia.