The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep Quotes

“If the Putin regime faces a democratic revolt, it will seek to defend itself by claiming it is under attack by foreign agents. The apartment bombings demonstrate that it is the Putin regime itself that is the enemy of the population, and that the regime will not hesitate to use any means at its disposal to stay in power. At the same time, the apartment bombings, more dramatically than any other episode in recent Russian history, demonstrate the inherent criminality of the Russian authorities’ view that individuals exist for the benefit of the state.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“corruption is a symptom of a deeper ill, the disregard for the value of the individual by comparison with the perceived requirements of the state. An attack on corruption that does not address this underlying subservience risks removing one group of corrupt leaders and replacing them with another group that is just as bad.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“As Russia faces the future, it has three serious problems: a deteriorating economy, a fratricidal war whose cost is almost certain to increase, and a moral disintegration that may leave the regime without defenders if it faces a serious challenge. Taken together these factors are more than sufficient to undermine the system’s stability.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“In Moscow, the events in Ukraine were seen as a textbook example of the popular overthrow of a kleptocratic ruler that could be duplicated in Russia. The regime in Ukraine was almost identical to what had been created in Russia, with the sole difference being that Ukraine, with a nationalist west and center and a pro-Russian east, was more pluralistic. Under these circumstances, it was essential to the Russian leadership that the Ukrainian revolution be discredited. The regime chose the method traditionally used to distract the Russian population from their rulers’ abuses. They started a war.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“After the devastation wrought by the Yeltsin era, almost any new leader was likely to be perceived as a potential savior. Russians saw in Putin what they wanted him to be, rather than what he was. He also took power at a moment when the Russian economy started to expand.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“The rise of a criminal oligarchy and the reliance on violent and illegal methods to create an authoritarian political system inevitably affected the public consciousness. They led to a blurring of moral distinctions, a growth of irrationality, and a disregard for the value of human life. The blurring of moral distinctions was a natural consequence of a transition process that rewarded criminality. Success in Russia was so closely associated with crime that it surprised no one when gangsters became civic leaders.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“Anatoly Chubais, who was Yeltsin’s campaign manager at the time, said that “of course” there were violations in the campaign, but if the 1996 vote were to be dismissed as a fraud, “then we automatically have to deem both of President Putin’s terms illegitimate along with the presidency of Medvedev. … There would be nothing left of Russia’s post-Soviet history.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“But by carrying out the largest peaceful transfer of property in history without the benefit of law, the reformers created the conditions for the criminalization of the whole country. The new society that emerged had three outstanding characteristics: an economy dominated by a criminal oligarchy, an authoritarian political system, and, perhaps most important, a moral degradation that subverted all legal and ethical standards and made real civil society impossible. Their interaction set the stage for Russia’s drift into a regime of aggression and terror.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“Until the truth about the apartment bombings is known, the true nature of Russia’s postcommunist history cannot be established. At the same time, failing to react to the evidence that the bombings were a government-planned mass crime leaves such provocation as a standing temptation for government leaders. If those responsible are not identified and punished, it will be assumed by those fighting for power in Russia that provocations are a legitimate way to win elections.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“Critical to the credence given in the West to official Russian explanations was an inability to accept the idea that the Yeltsin regime would murder hundreds of its own citizens and terrify the nation to hold on to power. This refusal to believe the unbelievable, however, came at a cost. It crippled Western policy toward Russia, rendering it naïve and ineffectual. From the moment Putin took power, the West maintained an image of Russia that bore no relation to reality.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin

“Westerners become confused because they approach Russia with a Western frame of reference, not realizing that Russia is a universe based on a completely different set of values.”
― David Satter, The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin