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Mafia State
- How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia
- Narrated by: Luke Harding
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
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Mafia State
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Summary
In 2007 Luke Harding arrived in Moscow to take up a new job as a correspondent for the British newspaper the Guardian. Within months, mysterious agents from Russia's Federal Security Service - the successor to the KGB - had broken into his flat. He found himself tailed by men in cheap leather jackets, bugged, and even summoned to Lefortovo, the KGB's notorious prison. The break-in was the beginning of an extraordinary psychological war against the journalist and his family. Vladimir Putin's spies used tactics developed by the KGB and perfected in the 1970s by the Stasi, East Germany's sinister secret police. This clandestine campaign burst into the open in 2011 when the Kremlin expelled Harding from Moscow - the first western reporter to be deported from Russia since the days of the Cold War.
Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia is a brilliant and haunting account of the insidious methods used by a resurgent Kremlin against its so-called "enemies" - human rights workers, western diplomats, journalists and opposition activists. It includes unpublished material from confidential US diplomatic cables, released last year by WikiLeaks, which describe Russia as a "virtual mafia state". Harding gives a unique, personal and compelling portrait of today's Russia, two decades after the end of communism, that sounds like a spy thriller.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- TW
- 10-04-13
Great book!
I really enjoyed this book. I thought that Luke's refreshing honesty and comprehensive review of his years in Moscow were wonderful - and it was fascinating to read of the tough time he and his family had.
Personally, I felt that the book could have been edited a little better - with explanations in the latter part of the book often referring to things that we had already been introduced to. I also felt that some of the "field trips" (for want of a better word) in the middle of the book were extremely similar to articles that I had read in the Guardian during Luke's time in Moscow.
Nonetheless a great read by one of the very few truly principled western reporters to have served in Russia in recent years.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sin sin minkin
- 15-04-16
Great book, poorly read.
I loved this book for its content. That the reading of it was stuttering and robotic merely highlights the book's interest and intrigue: I suffered it to the end.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- brian ferguson
- 04-03-24
excellent
excellent very hard to stop listening to once you start, highly recommend listening well read
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- lawrence
- 26-03-17
interesting book
it's an interesting book, which delivers a bleak picture of today's Russia. Harding gives a good delivery but I really really wish he didn't pronounce nuclear as nookular...
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mr
- 18-05-18
Great book but average narration
Contents are worth a listen but Luke Harding doesn’t seem a natural narrator, which was a slight problem. You should still download it though.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 13-10-18
Worth listening to!
Interesting story with strangely disjointed rendition. A professional reader would have done a better job.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jude Uk
- 06-05-22
Amazing account of life in Russia
The stilting delivery took a little getting used to but nice hearing it from the author. Brave man. It leaves you feeling very thankful to be born in the West.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anne
- 31-12-22
Troubling witness account of Putin's Russia
Chilling account of Russia under Putin's first term as President, then as PM. Unfortunately, the author is a poor narrator and it requires great determination to keep listening.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Ktel
- 31-10-18
can't listen anymore. awful reading
awful reading with interesting content but can't listen to his he reads it. trying to return it but audible doesn't make it easy
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