Our Dear Friends in Moscow

Two of Russia's best investigative journalists tell the story of how the hopes of their generation of optimistic Russians in the 1990s faded to be replaced by autocracy, fear, and betrayal

Our Dear Friends in Moscow tells the story of a group of young Russians, part of an idealistic generation who came of age in Moscow at the end of the twentieth century, just as the communist era imploded and a future full of potential, and uncertainty, stood in front of them. Initially, the group seized and enjoyed the freedoms of the new era, but quickly the notion that Russia was destined to join the West, and Europe, in a new partnership began to fade. At home the economy imploded, civil war stalked the Russian border in Chechnya, and terrorism came to Moscow. More discreetly, the new Russian government began to pull back from reconciliation with the United States and the West; by the time of Vladimir Putin's second and apparently endless term as president, the country had embraced a kind of ethno-nationalism and as heading for war at home and abroad.

The group is torn apart by the shift in Russia. Some flee; others become sinister agents of the ever more aggressive state. The center cannot hold.

"A searingly defiant account of the battle for truth under totalitarianism."--Kirkus (starred)
"Our Dear Friends in Moscow is a work of powerfully intimate reportage which tracks the spiritual and emotional journey of a cadre of young reporters who came of age between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Putin; between those brief years of journalistic freedom and the return of nationalistic censorship in which, for a writer, the choice was to become either a government flack or be hounded into exile or worse. What each of these friends opted to do, resist or submit, and the cost of these decisions on all aspects of their lives yields a portrait of a talented generation who aged into a future that none of them saw coming."--Richard Price, novelist and screenwriter for The Wire
"Our Dear Friends in Moscow is an illuminating, engrossing, and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of Putin's Russia, told through the eyes of a small group of friends now divided by war, politics, and a vision for the future. Soldatov and Borogan have given us a raw, unsparing, and intimate look at a Russian generation that began in great hope but ended in perpetual conflict. If you're looking for a book that explains how the West fell out with Moscow, you've found it."--David McCloskey, former CIA analyst and internationally bestselling author of The Seventh Floor
"Poignant and illuminating, Soldatov and Borogan tell the story of modern-day Russia through the overlapping lives of a group of journalist friends. Our Dear Friends in Moscow is a tale of inspiring courage and wrenching compromise, written with intimacy, affection, and a heavy heart."--Clarissa Ward, chief international correspondent, CNN, and author of On All Fronts
"This is a book that lifts the lid on how Putin has not only bludgeoned Russian liberals but also corrupted so many of them. Soldatov and Borogan have written a profound account of the emasculation of Russia's once-vibrant media."--Robert Service, author of A History of Modern Russia

Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov are visiting fellows at King's College London and nonresident senior fellows with the Center for European Policy Analysis.?

They are investigative journalists and cofounders Agentura.ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services' activities.? They have covered security services and terrorism issues since 1999.?

In October 2012, Agentura.ru, Privacy International, and Citizen Lab launched the joint project 'Russia's Surveillance State.' The project's research over surveillance measures introduced by the Russian authorities at the 2014 Winter Olympics was run by the Guardian as a front-page story.

Together they are the authors of?The?New?Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB?(PublicAffairs, 2010),?The?Red?Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the?New?Online Revolutionaries (PublicAffairs, 2015), and?The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Emigres, and Agents Abroad?(PublicAffairs, 2019).

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