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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
challenging
medium-paced
A difficult and depressing but fascinating read
challenging
slow-paced
Fascinating, but there are so many characters and the book jumps around between them in different times and places which makes it really hard to keep up. The different threads all cross over eachother and interlink which adds to the confusion, but it all comes together in the last couple of chapters. There should be a list of characters for reference.
dark
informative
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
(read as physical book)
What's it about?
It's a non-fiction book, written by a journalist, about dirty money that enters the West from the former Soviet Union. Focuses on Kazakhstan, specifically the oligarch Ablyazov, former owner of the BTA bank, and ENRC, a London listed resource company owned by the "Trio". Told chronologically, from 2008 to 2020.
What did I think?
I liked the book. It does a good job of exposing thing, even though it can be hard to keep track of all the different characters. Well researched. Would have liked if it had talked more about the big picture, rather than just being a narrative.
Crazy that the author was/is being sued by ENRC. To have a fair and free society, we need to support this kind of work.
What's it about?
It's a non-fiction book, written by a journalist, about dirty money that enters the West from the former Soviet Union. Focuses on Kazakhstan, specifically the oligarch Ablyazov, former owner of the BTA bank, and ENRC, a London listed resource company owned by the "Trio". Told chronologically, from 2008 to 2020.
What did I think?
I liked the book. It does a good job of exposing thing, even though it can be hard to keep track of all the different characters. Well researched. Would have liked if it had talked more about the big picture, rather than just being a narrative.
Crazy that the author was/is being sued by ENRC. To have a fair and free society, we need to support this kind of work.
dark
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Very informative and fascinating to learn how money and power move. Hard to keep track of different names and stories as there were so many, probably easier to read in print format.
informative
slow-paced
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
A great and intriguing book. How much research went into it and so much detail. It is a very well written.
We are told we live in a world of thieves, not the garden variety type, but the cream of the crop variety. Their reaches are within the top echelons of government. They are plundering wealth for their themselves but they sell themselves as being the crusaders against corruption. Take one Donald Trump as an example.
The depths to which they hide their identities with the connivance of places like London and Switzerland makes you wonder. These guys want to control the bad guys and if they can't, they'll use governments to sanction countries and kleptocrats. Only those kleptocrats that enrichen London and Switzerland are safe.
Beware your own western governments - they are not incorruptible, in fact the opposite.
We are told we live in a world of thieves, not the garden variety type, but the cream of the crop variety. Their reaches are within the top echelons of government. They are plundering wealth for their themselves but they sell themselves as being the crusaders against corruption. Take one Donald Trump as an example.
The depths to which they hide their identities with the connivance of places like London and Switzerland makes you wonder. These guys want to control the bad guys and if they can't, they'll use governments to sanction countries and kleptocrats. Only those kleptocrats that enrichen London and Switzerland are safe.
Beware your own western governments - they are not incorruptible, in fact the opposite.
informative