Don't let the fact that this is a non-fiction give you the impression you will be bored for even one page. A stunning and tragic story, eye-opening and sad but also informative and very well-researched. The man who wrote the book was close to a lot of the events that occured at high levels of government in Russia during the time just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Want to know what really happened when 50 Chechyn rebels took 800 hostages in a Moscow theater a few years back? The Kursk (submarine) disaster? The start, end, restart, re-ending, and on and on Chechyn/Russian war? Yeltsin cancelling the democratic elections two days before they were to take place? Weird poisonings, spectacular executions, political killings intended to frame a rival, what a frightening mess. Loyalty and treason were more a matter of who was in charge at the time, when another entity would take the reins of power, those close to the top of the former leader and most trusted just the day before were first on the list of imprisonments, disappearances, economic crimes, odd "accidents", compromising set-ups and forced confessions of wrongdoing. One president had to immediately pardon 100,000 prisoners within days after taking power just to make room for all the people he was planning on imprisoning once he could enact his policies. George Soros has some disturbingly close ties to some very questionable goings-ons. After just READING this book I feel I should be looking over my shoulder, it seems the stories revealed in this book are almost too scary to comprehend. This is better than any fiction, more exciting and scary and convoluted than any thriller I've seen. And being a true story, it's enough to keep you awake at night. Brrrrrr! 5 stars for sure, more if I could award more than 5!

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