As recent cases show, Russia’s spy agencies, heirs to their Soviet predecessors, are capable of carrying out Bond villain-style assassinations in foreign countries of those they deem traitors. Although Princeton history professor Jonathan Haslam devotes only a few lines to Vladimir Putin, Near and Distant Neighbors describes well enough how the KGB agent-cum-Russian president learned his tactics.
Despite his palpable contempt for Russia and its culture, Haslam’s account of Soviet secret services is well documented and his assessments of key personalities are acute. As for foreigners who became Soviet spies, Haslam shows that the first generation were motivated by blind belief in Communism but that after the fervor faded in the light of reality, the Soviets were forced to pay handsomely for the secrets they obtained.
