Book Description:
Former CBS correspondent Richard Threlkeld, with his wife, Betsy Aaron, spent almost three years reporting from Moscow, going beyond the headlines to discover the drama of daily life at a moment of extraordinary change in one of the most fascinating parts of the world. In a series of colorful vignettes, you'll be whisked from the crime ridden Wild, Wild East of Siberia to the glitzy casinos of Moscow and the world of Russia's new super rich. You'll see what life is like in the rubble of Russia's breakaway province of Chechnya, whose people have sacrificed everything for independence. You'll meet the Kalish folk in the mountains of Azerbaijan, some of whom are more than 120 years old, and the Nenets of the Arctic, who still follow the reindeer herds in much the same fashion as America's Sioux and Cheyene followed the buffalo two centuries ago. You'll find yourself in the most fascinating place of all: behind the walls of the Kremlin the waning years of Boris Yeltsin's regime. As 'Tsar Boris' plays musical chairs with his ministers, you'll be an eyewitness to the palace intrigues of Russia's new Rasputin, Boris Berezovsky, and his ally, Yeltin's ambitious and willful daughter, Tatyana. And you'll be introduced to the most interesting characters of all, the long suffering, everyday citizens of this sprawling land; The Kuzbass coal minters who line up for cold cuts instead of a paycheck; the country schoolmarm who frets because her students are shivering and hungry; the voter in Zaaraisk who takes his little son with him into the voting booth to show him democracy at work, 'so he'll know all about it when he grows up!' Threlkeld has drawn an engaging and tragicomic portrait of the West's old enemy. And he has made a case for making better friends with the former Evil Empire. As he writes, 'At heart, this is a valentine!'
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