Moscow Rules Quotes

“To understand Russia today, you must understand the trauma of the nineties. Everything we had, everything we had been told, was swept away. We went from superpower to basket case overnight.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“Your system (Russia) allows for no viable opposition, and, without a viable opposition, there can be no democracy. - Sarah Crawford”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“The French like anyone with money and power. - Mikhail Abramov”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“On the opposite bank, at Serafimovicha Street 2, stood the infamous House on the Embankment, the colossal apartment block built by Stalin in 1931 as an exclusive residence for the most elite members of the nomenklatura. During the height of the Great Terror, 766 residents, or one-third of its total population, had been murdered, and those "privileged" enough to reside in the house lived in constant fear of the knock at the door. Despite its bloody history, many of the old Soviet elite and their children still lived in the building, and flats now sold for millions of dollars. Little of the exterior had changed except for the roof, which was now crowned by a Stalin-size revolving advertisement for Mercedes-Benz. The Nazis may have failed in their bid to capture Moscow, but now, sixty years after the war, the flag of German industrial might flew proudly from one of the city's most prestigious landmarks.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“She wanted to take him to a cemetery. To understand Russia today, she said, you must first know her past. And to know her past, you had to walk among her bones.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“אנשים שפועלים על פי תורתו של סטלין: את כל הבעיות פותר המוות. אין איש, אין בעיה”
― דניאל סילבה, Moscow Rules

“It is said that travelers who approach Geneva by train from Zurich are frequently so overcome by its beauty that they hurl their return tickets out of the window and vow never to leave.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“Russian men don’t always make the best fathers. Unfortunately, is is a cultural trait they pass on to their sons. - Elena Kharkov”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“In a world gone mad, America is still the last best hope.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“Russians are a paternalistic people. They believe in the Orthodox Church, the State, the Tsar. They associate democracy with chaos. Our president and the siloviki understand this. They use words like ‘managed democracy’ and ‘State capitalism,’ but they’re just euphemisms for something more sinister: fascism.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“Without the slightest trace of irony in her amplified voice, she pointed out the landmarks along the wide boulevard: the soaring statue of Lenin, with his hand extended, as though he were forever attempting to hail a cab; the stirring monuments to the Great Patriotic War; the towering temples of Soviet central planning and control. She ignored the dilapidated office buildings, the Brezhnev-era apartment blocks collapsing under their own weight, and the storefront shops now brimming with consumer goods the Soviet state could never provide. These were the relics of the grand folly the Soviets had attempted to foist on the rest of the world. Now, in the minds of the New Russians, the murderous crimes of the Bolsheviks were but a way station on the road to an era of Russian greatness. The gulags, the cruelty, the untold millions who were starved to death or “repressed”—they were only unpleasant details. No one had ever been called to account for his actions. No one was ever punished for his sins.”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“the meal: that he had the”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules

“- Aquilo ali são balas. Cinquenta milhões delas, para ser exacto. O suficiente para matar uma grande porção do Terceiro Mundo. Mas não há grandes probabilidades disso. O típico combatente da liberdade não é muito disciplinado. Não nos queixamos. É bom para o negócio".”
― Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules