No longer the sick man of Europe, Russia is run by an authoritarian ex-KGB regime with the cash to put its ideas into practice. Under Vladimir Putin's autocratic rule, it silences its critics and bullies it neighbours. The murders of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the emigre Aleksander Litvinenko have sent a grim warning to other critics, and the sham presidential election in 2008 that put Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin as Putin's hand-picked successor showed how Russia's rulers, not the voters, dictate the country's political future. The New Cold War explains the Kremlin's use of energy blockades and trade sanctions, military incursions and propaganda wars against its neighbours - and why a divided and demoralised West is responding so feebly. It is an incisive and disturbing account of why we are perilously close to defeat - and how we can still win.