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Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump Hardcover – March 13, 2018
| Michael Isikoff (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
| David Corn (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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"Russian Roulette is...the most thorough and riveting account." -- The New York Times
Russian Roulette is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election.
The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no "third-rate burglary." It was far more sophisticated and sinister -- a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle -- including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- and Russia.
Russian Roulette chronicles and explores this bizarre scandal, explains the stakes, and answers one of the biggest questions in American politics: How and why did a foreign government infiltrate the country's political process and gain influence in Washington?
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTwelve
- Publication dateMarch 13, 2018
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-109781538728758
- ISBN-13978-1538728758
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"RUSSIAN ROULETTE is...the most thorough and riveting account."―The New York Times
"Riveting."―Newsweek
"[RUSSIAN ROULETTE] does an outstanding job of putting the Russia-Trump story into context, separating rumor from fact and adding new information...A smart, solid, even-handed book that future historians will use as a starting point."―Booklist (starred review)
"Russian Roulette performs an important service in tracing how establishment Washington -- policymakers, intelligence chiefs, journalists -- came to understand that what Russia was (and reportedly is still) up to was not routine espionage...engaging, smart."―Los Angeles Times
"An eye-popping exposé of what amounts to a Cabinet appointment for Vladimir Putin in the Trump White House. If you're puzzled why the sitting president isn't going after the Russians for election tampering and other bad behavior, this is just the book to explain."―Kirkus
"This narrative by investigative reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn leaves the reader nearly overwhelmed by evidence that Trump and Vladimir Putin have been striving to collaborate for years. Russian Roulette...makes many important contributions to this extraordinary story."―The Guardian
"With decades of experience from working the capital's cloakrooms and briefing rooms, [Michael Isikoff and David Corn] are deft practitioners of the modern craft of political book prose...Russian Roulette is a public service."―PopMatters
About the Author
David Corn is a veteran Washington journalist and political commentator. He is the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine and an analyst for MSNBC. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers, including Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Battled the GOP to Set Up the 2012 Election and Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War (co-written with Michael Isikoff). He is also the author of the biography Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades and the novel Deep Background.
Product details
- ASIN : 1538728753
- Publisher : Twelve; First Edition (March 13, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781538728758
- ISBN-13 : 978-1538728758
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #311,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #122 in Russian & Soviet Politics
- #215 in Elections
- #345 in United States National Government
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Michael Isikoff is an American investigative journalist, who has worked for the Washington Post, Newsweek and NBC News. He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story and Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War (co-written with David Corn.) He is a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, and other TV talk shows. Isikoff is currently the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News.

David Corn is a veteran Washington journalist and political commentator. He is the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine and an analyst for MSNBC. He is the author or co-author of four New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 bestseller Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump; Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Battled the GOP To Set Up the 2012 Election; and Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. He is also the author of the Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades and the novel Deep Background.
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If you've closely followed the unfolding story about the multiple connections between Donald Trump's associates and top Kremlin officials, the so-called oligarchs, and the Russian mafia, you're unlikely to find much in Russian Roulette that will surprise you. The book contains abundant detail, fleshing out the often-sketchy stories that have surfaced in the press; seemingly, every individual name that has come to light over the past eighteen months in the reporting of this unfolding scandal figures in the authors' account. There are few startling revelations in this story, which has been extensively covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, The New Yorker, and other American news outlets.
The true value in Russian Roulette lies elsewhere. Isikoff and Corn's book excels in its detailed description of the massive effort mounted by Russian intelligence to deepen the divisions and distrust within American society, destroy Hillary Clinton's reputation, and help Donald Trump win the presidency. In Russian Roulette, you'll meet the players central to the massive Russian campaign, including the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency and the two large hacker groups dubbed Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear by US intelligence. At a minimum, two hundred Russians were engaged in the Kremlin-driven effort over at least two years. Only in recent months has the full extent of this campaign come to the attention of the US public.
Vladimir Putin and the 2016 election
Despite the repeated denials from the White House and Trump loyalists in Congress and on Fox News, there can be no doubt whatsoever that the Russian influence campaign was real. Early in January 2017, two weeks before Donald Trump's inauguration as President, the heads of the four top US intelligence agencies issued a joint statement. "With 'high confidence,' the assessment stated, 'Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Hillary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.'" The statement was signed by James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence), John Brennan (CIA), Michael Rogers (NSA), and James Comey (FBI), the four most senior intelligence officials in the US government under President Barack Obama. Given the rivalry within the intelligence community—and the time it took them to reach agreement on the wording—this assessment is remarkable.
Did the Russians help Donald Trump win?
More than 130 million votes were cast in the 2016 presidential election. Innumerable factors contributed to Trump's victory, including strategic errors by Hillary Clinton and her staff, Trump's demagogic skills, successful years-long Republican efforts to suppress minority voting, the failure of the Obama White House to highlight and respond to the Russian influence campaign, and James Comey's misleading announcement eleven days before the election that the FBI was investigating a fresh collection of Hillary Clinton emails. If a mere 70,000 votes had changed hands in the three swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin, Clinton would have won the Electoral College as well as the popular vote.
Given these facts, it's impossible to determine whether the Russian campaign was decisive. And the joint statement by the intelligence community insisted that "'We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election.'" Yet, reading between the lines, it appears the the authors have drawn their own conclusion—that Putin's gambit did in fact play a significant role in Trump's election. Isikoff and Corn drive this point home with a colorful detail: "the Russian Duma burst into applause when informed Trump was the victor. Putin's operation—which had fueled divisions within the United States and influenced an American presidential election—had succeeded."
About the authors
Michael Isikoff is currently the Chief Investigative Correspondent for Yahoo! News. He previously served in senior roles at Newsweek and NBC News. Russian Roulette is his third book.
David Corn is chief of the Washington bureau for Mother Jones. Previously, he was The Nation's Washington correspondent. He won the prestigious George Polk Award for his reporting in 2013. Corn has written six books, including one novel and four other nonfiction works as well as Russian Roulette.
The story begins with a history of Trump, Russia, and the Miss Universe contest held in a suburb near Moscow. We see early on Trump’s keen interest to do business in Russia and his desire to meet Putin. It is important to note that when things went badly for Putin and Russia, Putin saw the hidden hand of America trying to impose their worldview. Putin saw the West repeatedly humiliating him, for example, over Libya and Syria, which he considered his back yard. The finger was often pointed at Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State. Another key moment occurred in February 2013 when Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of Russia’s armed forces, published an article advocating that “Russia adapt its military strategies to the modern world.” Russia was becoming aware of a new world in which battalions and fighter aircraft would be a thing of the past, replaced by hackers and skilled propagandists exploiting rifts in the ranks of the adversary. The goal: destroy NATO, the European Union, and seriously harm the United States. We are all familiar now with the Internet Research Agency and the compromise of social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The story now segues to the hack of the DNC by APT29 (Cozy Bear) and APT 28 (hackers associated with Russian military intelligence). These groups have been active for many years hacking into the systems of aerospace, energy, media, and government. Some time is spent discussing Trump’s connection to the Russian-born Felix Sater, a NY real estate developer. We also see Trump bragging about how his firm was riding high on money flowing out of Russia. Trump Jr. touted Russia as a key source of profits, and Trump was always trying to secure a project in Moscow. The authors note, “Was he trying to leverage his status as the Republican front-runner to finally score a Moscow deal?” It is an interesting thought.
Paul Manafort played an important role in the Trump campaign for a few months, and the authors devote a chapter to this person. Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state at the time, had stated that “He’s been a Russian stooge for fifteen years.” There is a lot to say here, dating back to the notorious lobbying and consulting firm Black, Manafort, and Stone. We learn of the relationship between Manafort, Deripaska, and Akhmetov, among others. Of course, then there’s Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. The FBI determined that they were being cultivated by cutouts for Russian intelligence, “as part of a sophisticated operation to infiltrate and influence the Trump campaign.” Then there’s the Trump Jr meeting with Veselnitskaya and others, which figured prominently in the news. Moving on, there is some interesting details on the Christopher Steele dossier and Fusion GPS. I interestingly noted that the information provided by the dossier was “akin to preliminary intelligence reporting – information not analyzed, vetted, or ready for distribution.” It was not meant to be gospel, but a raw product of intelligence gathering.
The ensuing chapters discuss the details of the DNC hack, Podesta’s email hack, the search for Clinton’s emails, the Obama administration’s response to the Russian interference in the election, the Internet Research Agency and their compromise of Twitter and Facebook, and what the intelligence community was learning about the Russian attack. If you followed the news, much of this will be familiar to you, but the authors go into a bit of detail on these matters.
Top reviews from other countries
Being serious, this is an incredibly in-depth book that tells you all you need to know about the silver tongued charmer and his friend Vlad!












