The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past

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The Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian SSRs were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and not recognised internationally as part of the country.

Map of the Soviet Union

Barents Sea

laltic Sea

ARCTIC OCEAN

Magadan

LITHl

1ELARUS

Sea of Okhotsk

Moscow

Irkutsk

Vladivostok

KAZAKHSTAN

UKRAINE

[OLDOyAf

GEORGIA ^RMENIA-

AZERBAIJAN

UZBEKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN

0 300 V 600 < 900 Kilometers

Map of Russia

Map of Ukraine

PROLOGUE

October 2014, Torez, rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine

There had been an autumn chill in the air for a few days, and even inside the seized secret police headquarters, it was cold. The Romanian did not seem to notice the temperature, apparently comfortable in his light military jacket and a single, fingerless leather glove. But he clocked me shivering, and declared it unacceptable that the town's heat­ing system had not yet come on. He had been to the power plant the previous day, he said, and laid down an ultimatum. They had a week to get things sorted or he would have the management shot for sabotage.

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