LA RUSSIA IN QUATTRO CRIMINALI

A traditional "mafioso", an oligarch, a prisoner who leaked horrific videos about regime's torture on civilians behind bars, and the inventor of the world's most powerful computer virus.

As one of the leading experts of criminal organization, Varese takes us on fascinating and terrible journey in the heart of politics, post-Soviet government with the narrative path of the best spy novels. The actions of these four criminals expertly portrayed by Federico Varese, reveal how Russia has changed through time. From the Soviet period, then the critical years of Boris Yeltsin's presidency, to the authoritarian era of Vladimir Putin: the widespread corruption and police manipulation to cover up government crimes have marked the entire post-Soviet history since the 1990s. But Putin's regime is only the culmination of a violent transition started with Yeltsin and based on theft, repression of dissent, but above all by the destructive alliance between crime and politics. Federico Varese is the author of The Russian Mafia (2001), Mafie in movimento (Einaudi, 2011) and Vita di mafia (Einaudi 2018) as well as many academic essays. His books have won numerous awards and have appeared in ten languages. He is Professor of Criminology and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He has edited the magazine "Global Crime" and written for the "New York Times" and the "Times" of London. He contributes to the Times Literary Supplement and "La Repubblica". Vita di mafia (Mafia Life) has been translated in many languages.