'History is made up of myths ' writes the renowned Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar.
'Alas our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.' Drawing from his
perilous career investigating the frontiers of the Russian empire Zygar reveals how 350 years
of propaganda bad historical scholarship folk tales and fantasy spurred his nation into war
with Ukraine. A noted expert on the Kremlin with unparalleled access to hundreds of players in
the current conflict - from politicians to oligarchs gangsters to comedians (not least
Zelensky himself) - Zygar chronicles the power struggles from which today's politics grew and
digs out the essential truths from behind layers of seductive legend. By surveying the strange
complex record of Russo-Ukrainian relations WAR AND PUNISHMENT reveals exactly how the largest
nation on Earth lost its senses. A work of history can't undo the past or transform the present
but sometimes it can shape the future.
