Shadow State

Murder, Mayhem, and Russia's Remaking of the West

De: Luke Harding

Narrado por: Nicholas Guy Smith

A
thrilling account of how Russia is waging a hidden war against America and the
West, using espionage, corruption, fake news, and KGB-style murder

March
2018. Two Russian assassins arrive in a provincial English city to kill a
former officer from Russia’s GRU intelligence agency. His crime? Passing
secrets to British spies. The poison? A lethal nerve agent, novichok. The
attempted execution was a reminder – as if one were needed - of Russia’s contempt
for international norms. The Soviet Union and its doctrine are long gone, but
the playbook used by the Kremlin’s spies during that long confrontation with
the West is back. And the underlying goal remains the same: to undermine
democracy and exploit divisions within American and European society and
politics.

Moscow’s support for Donald
Trump in the 2016 presidential election has grown into the biggest political
scandal of modern times. Its American players are well-known. In Shadow
State, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Luke Harding reveals
the Russians behind the story: the spies, hackers and internet trolls. Harding
charts how the Kremlin has updated Communist-era methods of influence and
propaganda for the age of Facebook and Twitter, and considers the compelling
question of our age: what exactly does Vladimir Putin have on President Trump?

Similar to those of the Cold
War, Putin’s ambitions are truly global. His emissaries include oligarchs, bankers,
lawyers, mercenaries, and agents of influence. They roam from Salisbury to
Helsinki, Ukraine to Central Africa, London to Washington, D.C. Shadow State
is the singular account of how the Kremlin seeks to reshape the world, to
divide the US from its European friends, and to remake America in its own dark
and kleptocratic image. This is an essential read for anyone who wants to
understand how our politics came to be so chaotic and divided. Nothing less
than the future of Western democracy is at stake.

Excellent book, not a good reader performance

Luke Harding's research is always solid and I love how he writes. However, the reader of this important book couldn't bother to learn how to pronounce Russian names or Robert Mueller's last name. It is jarring to hear such bad pronunciations and very distracting.

Great to hear Steele's response to the last few years and as we know now Trump was OK with US soldiers being killed by the Taliban for Russian bounties all of this book makes sense.

Well worth the wait.

The reader is mispronouncing words!

I have never heard the GRU, Russian military intelligence pronounced as "grew" before. It's always spelt out as G-R-U like KGB. The producer should have picked this up. Just as annoying is the pronunciation of Robert Mueller's surname. It may look like "Mewler" but Robert Mueller says is "Mull-er" so this fanciful pronunciation is incredibly irritating - it's not like we haven't all heard it said correctly thousands of times for three years. Also many of the Russian names are incorrect and told in a slapdash way. That this could happen with an important book by a major author is truly head-scratching. Very unprofessional, this book should be rerecorded properly. These details are incredibly important to get right, it's really setting my teeth on edge and I've only just started.....
Halfway through and the "Grew" for GRU is just as irritatiing. Does Nicholas Guy Smith the reader just make up whimsical pronunciations for fun? He actually refers to FIFA as "fyffer". He's English, he knows this is not how you prounce FIFA, he's a quite experienced reader as well so he has no excuse PLUS the producer should have said something, it's real amateur hour. Perhaps he is being held hostage and is trying to tell us something with his bizarre proununciations.

Engaging history of Russian subversion

Excellent and engaging history of Russian subversive activities in the west. Lots of detail with interesting information for everybody who has an interest in that area. Of course it is better to know all these things, but hard to remember

The Most Dangerous Threat to Western Democracy

Every voting citizen of the United States and Great Britian should read this book. Luke Harding shows us in irrebuttable detail how Russia's Putin orchestrated the rise to power of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, and the Brexit vote's success. Putin's goal is no less than the destruction of western democracy. Putin, whose agents committed murder on British sovereign soil, will not rest until America and the UK are too weak to resist. Then Russia will move to retake those EU countries not already lost to xenophobic, populist strongmen.

Good

Solid work and appreciate the perspective from all fronts. The connection between actors is incredible and interesting.