Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

A good primer on how spectacle and sentiment can do a lot of work for your budding tyrannies.

A fascinating and gripping trip into a dark, surreal and often terrifying world. But I don't trust Peter Pomerantsev. His portrait of Putin's Russia chimes too well with western hegemony. His fleeting description of George Galway, a "far-left supporter of Saddam Hussein" is just one example of a chink from which a whiff of lazy bigotry leaks.