Never Speak to Strangers and Other Writing from Russia and the Soviet Union

David Satter is one of the world’s leading commentators on Russia. The two-volume book series Never Speak to Strangers is a collection of his articles and essays. Volume two includes articles about the Russia-Ukraine war and argues that this tragic conflict was preventable. David Satter’s writings and interviews describe the psychological roots of the conflict. Picking up where the first volume left off, the second volume of Never Speak to Strangers includes material on the historical and psychological roots of Russian aggression, the Yeltsin and Putin regimes, and, in particular, Russia’s war against Ukraine.

David Satter shows that change could come to Russia in the wake of a defeat in Ukraine, but external events will not be enough to divert Russia permanently from foreingn aggression and internal repression. For that, what is required is something more fundamental, a recognition that world order must be based on universal moral values and a rejection once and for all of Russia’s ＂special way＂.

David Satter has been one of the world’s leading commentators on Russian affairs for almost five decades. He was the Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times from 1976 to 1982 and has written five books about Russia. After 1982, he was prevented from traveling to the Soviet Union but allowed back in 1990 and expelled in December 2013 with the explanation that the Russian intelligence services regarded his presence as ＂undesirable.＂ This made him the first US journalist to be barred from Russia since the Cold War.