Андрей Солдатов - The Red Web - The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries

We would like to thank the officials in the Russian Ministry of Communications, former and acting, who shared their knowledge and opinions with us. Many of them are genuinely concerned not with a fictional threat to Russia’s “digital sovereignty” but that the country they worked to open in the 1990s is trying to shut itself off from the world.

We are deeply indebted to Clive Priddle of PublicAffairs, who never flagged in his trust in us and our ideas. This book would not have been possible without PublicAffairs’ founder, Peter Osnos, who has been a key source of support since he published our first book, The New Nobility , in 2010.

Special appreciation is due to David Hoffman, a contributing editor at the Washington Post , who spent a year assisting us as we developed the idea into the book and then spent two very hard weeks with us in Moscow helping to frame and edit the manuscript. We are very grateful to Michael Birnbaum, the Post ’s Moscow bureau chief, for his hospitality as we hammered out the manuscript. And, as always, we thank Robert Guinsler, our agent at Sterling Lord Literistic.

We would be remiss not to add that we are indebted to Mikhail Gorbachev, who did more than anyone else to free information in our country.

Andrei Soldatovand Irina Boroganare cofounders of Agentura.ru and authors of The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB . Soldatov and Borogan worked for Novaya Gazeta from 2006 to 2008. Agentura.ru and its reporting have been featured in the New York Times , the Moscow Times , the Washington Post , Online Journalism Review, Le Monde, The Christian Science Monitor , CNN, Federation of American Scientists, and the BBC. The New York Times called it “A Web Site That Came in From the Cold to Unveil Russian Secrets.” Irina and Andrei live in Moscow, Russia.

“A gripping book about of the internet and its censorship in post-Soviet Russia…. Having covered technology and the security services from the start of their careers in the 1990s, the two Russian journalists have accumulated expert knowledge few can match. And yet they have written a book not for geeks but for anyone who wants to understand how their country works.”

“[Soldatov and Borogan] pull at the roots of the surveillance system in Russia today, and their research leads them quickly to the paranoid society of the Soviet Union.”

“A well-researched and disturbing book by two brave Russian authors.”

“[An] excellent, highly readable tale of the ongoing struggle to control digital life in Russia…. [Soldatov and Borogan] have gone on to become foremost experts on the Russian secret services, and count among the country’s few remaining practicing investigative journalists.”

“A masterful study of the struggle between the Kremlin’s desire to control information and the unruly world of ordinary digital citizens.”

“Soldatov and Borogan, two young journalists, dogged and nervy, are detectives, tracking down players on all sides…. A high-tech adventure.”

“Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, two of Russia’s top investigative journalists specializing in espionage, have given us a thrilling account of the online war between Russian surveillance and digital protesters…. A superb book by two brave journalists. It deserves to be widely read because it asks profound questions about freedom and the future of the internet.”

“Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan’s The Red Web could not be more timely. It is a meticulously researched and highly readable history of Russian online communication, from its birth in the twilight of Soviet power to the flourishing social networks and varied blogposts of today.”

“[Andrei Soldatov is] the single-most prominent critic of Russia’s surveillance apparatus.”

“If you want to know the history of Russian intelligence, look no further. Revealing, new, and rich in detail. From simple surveillance to electronic snooping Russian-style, a gripping and important study. This is a book you hope Russian officials don’t find in your luggage.”

“Russia hands and Net neutrality advocates alike will find plenty to intrigue in this report from the front lines.”

“[ The Red Web ] examines Putin’s power grabs and the Russian government’s use of surveillance, overt censorship, and intimidation through technology in recent years.”

“Borogan and Soldatov have spent a decade and a half reporting on the shadowy world of Russia’s secret services, and they are Moscow’s premier experts on eavesdropping, censorship, and paranoia. [ The Red Web is] essential reading for any student of modern Russia.”

“Soldatov and Borogan have little sympathy for Snowden, but their remarkably rich book is a major contribution to the same cause: to lay bare the extent to which modern governments seek to monitor and control their citizens. It makes for uncomfortable but essential reading.”

“[Soldatov and Borogan] undertake the logical and necessary task of tracing the roots of Putin’s repression and censorship, pointing out various continuities between the spies and censors of the twentieth century and today.”

“Russian journalists expose Internet censorship and surveillance in Putin’s Russia.”

“This unusual book describes a significant and concealed aspect of current Russian politics. The most troubling aspect of The Red Web may be its implication for Russia’s evolution and its accommodation with the West.”

“Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan… are among the best investigative reporters at work in Russia today…. [They go] beyond the propaganda and silence to detail the forces of control that will long outlast Putin. The Red Web sets and achieves an ambitious goal: to chart the history of the state’s mastery of digital communications and data.”

“A definitive account of how the Kremlin has thoroughly co-opted the Russian Internet, turning it into an effective tool for the modern surveillance state.”

PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.

I.F. STONE, proprietor of I. F. Stone’s Weekly , combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.