Peter Conradi, a former Moscow correspondent and now the Sunday Times’s foreign editor, has produced a timely and highly readable account of the history of Russia’s relations with the West from the fall of the Soviet Union to Trump’s election as US president. In other words, it is the story of the Soviet empire’s fall and the Russian empire’s rise – of how the Kremlin went from the humiliated loser of the Cold War to an unrepentant breaker of the international order. 

Conradi’s book is fast-paced, comprehensive, solidly researched and, most importantly, essential reading for anyone who wants to understand one of the great crises of our times. There are no dramatic revelations – at least not