Darkness at Dawn:The Rise of the Russian Criminal State

That's the title of a book I'm currently reading. And very depressing it is too. I didn't think there were many books that could be a whole lot more cynical than me!

But in a nutshell Russia is totally knackered - controlled at every level by criminals. It does give a good explanation of how the pyramid schemes worked to cheat people out of their life savings, why workers were never paid, why even after 10+ years of 'capitalism' service is still bloody awful, and why Yelsin wanted Putin to take over (and why if you're Russian your best bet is to go and live abroad, preferably somewhere like the UK or Ireland - I knew my Russian would come in handy one day!!).