Isikoff20180301RussianRoulette.html

Russian Roulette

The inside story of Putin's war on America and the election of Donald Trump

[... 246-page pdf file ...]

CONTENTS [pdf-5]

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction: “It’s a shakedown.”

1. “Mr. Putin would like to meet Mr. Trump.”
2. “We did not recognize the degree it would tick Putin off.”
3. “Are we here because Clinton texted us?”
4. “You don’t know me, but I’m working on a troll farm.”
5. “This is the new version of Watergate.”
6. “Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it.”
7. “He’s been a Russian stooge for fifteen years.”
8. “How the fuck did he get on the list?”
9. “If it’s what you say I love it.”
10. “WikiLeaks has a very big year ahead.”
11. “I have to report this to headquarters.”
12. “As for the Ukraine amendment, excellent work.”
13. “Next they’re going to put polonium in my tea.”
14. “We’ve been told to stand down.”
15. “He’s got me as the fall guy.”
16. “Does it even matter who hacked this data?”
17. “It also could be somebody sitting on their bed who weighs four hundred pounds, OK?”
18. “Only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
19. “We’ve been ratfucked.”
20. “This is the real reset of the Western world.”
21. “We got a sinking feeling.... It looked like a season of Homeland.”
Afterword: “Please, my God, can’t you stop this?

Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Also by Michael Isikoff and David Corn
Notes
Newsletters

Analysis by Will Zuzak:
Isikoff20180301RussianRoulette.pdf

This book Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn reads almost like a sequel to Fire and Fury by Thomas Wolff. And just like with Mr. Wolff, it is not clear if the authors are not embelishing the action and emotions somewhat to make the book more exciting and readable. Secondly, my standard complaint with these (and other) books is that the authors do not utilize full dates and times, such that it is easy to get confused as to the location and date of events that they are describing. [I prefer the nomenclature 09Jun2016 at 10:00 AM, rather than "the June 2016 meeting".]

Nevertheless, the book does provide an excellent backdrop and human context to the events being investigated by Robert S. Mueller. In addition to the people under indictment and the individuals associated with Donald Trump's election campaign and transition team, the authors have meticulously documented the involvement of many "outside players". It certainly leads to a far better understanding of the background and progress of Mr. Mueller's investigation.

[Further analysis of the individual chapters in the book shall be continued as time and energy permit.]

Ukraine references:

This website is dedicated to reporting on Ukrainian affairs and Ukraine. A Ctrl-F search for "Ukrain" yields over 110 hits. Most of these hits are associated with material in Chapter 4 (annexation of Crimea; Lyudmila Savchuk of St. Petersburg Troll Factory), Chapter 7 (Paul Manafort, Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Yanukovych; Alexandra Chalupa), Chapter 12 (Ukraine amendment, Steele Dossier), and Chapter 15 (Manafort dismissal; Carter Page, Comey-Steele-Simpson).

As could be expected, Paul "Manafort" receives over 160 hits, but over 90 of these are in Chapter 7 followed by Chapter 15, Chapter 14 and Notes

Victoria "Nuland" receives about 20 hits -- mostly in Chapter 3 associated with the intercepted telephone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt and Chapter 9 associated with the FSB guard attack on an American diplomat at the entrance of the American embassy in Moscow.