Casino Moscow by Matthew Brzezinski

The author had taken on exploration of the Wild East as a young post graduate and in 10 tumultuous years turned into an expert in post-Soviet business journalism. His adventure covers probably the most fascinating decade in the post-Soviet history – 1990′s.

For me, after having spent the years between 1991 and 1998 in the relative safety of the semi-military settlement in the Ural mountains away from the financial storms centred in Moscow, it was interesting to look back at that time from the point of view of the Westerner who reported from the front lines on the awakening of the Russian bear from the communist nightmare, on murky details of a quick split of country assets, and on naivety of the foreign investors trying to gamble on Russian roulette.

Brzezinski had a chance to meet and talk to the state leaders, financiers big and small, and to some shady characters. We both left Russia almost at the same time in 1998 upon different circumstances. Great read for all involved in Yeltsin’s Russia from inside and outside.

Buy from Amazon: Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism's Wildest Frontier.