Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped

　　The ascension of Vladimir Putin – a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB – to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years – as America and the world’s other leading powers have continued to appease him – Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the centre of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order.

　　For Garry Kasparov, none of this is news. He has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putin’s intentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with a darker truth: Putin’s Russia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world.

　　As Putin has grown ever more powerful, the threat he poses has grown from local to regional and finally to global. In this urgent book, Kasparov shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an endpoint – only a change of seasons, as the Cold War melted into a new spring. But now, after years of complacency and poor judgement, winter is once again upon us.

　　Argued with the force of Kasparov’s world-class intelligence, conviction and hopes for his home country, Winter Is Coming reveals Putin for what he is: an existential danger hiding in plain sight.

　　REVIEWS

　　In this punchy polemic, Kasparov reflects on how far the world has gone from the heady "end of history" days of the early 1990s to what some see as the advent of a new Cold War... Kasparov's moral clarity is admirable and informed by personal experience.--Peter Conradi Sunday Times

　　It's always important to read Garry Kasparov, who warned of the dangers of Putinism long before so many others. He is that rare thing: A Russian democrat who is realistic about his country, but remains hopeful for the future.--Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag and Iron Curtain

　　Garry Kasparov has the information-processing capacity of a supercomputer and the eloquence of an extraordinary orator. It takes a mind and a heart like his to analyze the last twenty-five years of the history of Russia in the world and emerge with not only an indictment of Western complicity but a clear call for Western action.--Masha Gessen, author of Man Without a Face and Words Will Break Cement