You should read Casino Moscow. It's an informal history of one reporter's experience in Russia in the 90s. Definitely not biased towards the present regime in R

You should read Casino Moscow. It's an informal history of one reporter's experience in Russia in the 90s. Definitely not biased towards the present regime in Russia; it's written by Zbigniew Brzezinski's nephew: the Brzezinski family is quite anti-Russia due to their Polish nobility heritage. Yet, the book gives a pretty good understanding of why the Russians like Putin and the present system: the 90s were really bad. Like, Mad Max bad, across a huge country of 150 million.