Russia and Its Islamic World (Relié)

Russia today is a faded superpower striving to make a comeback. Its dreams of renewed power and respect—as well as its regrets and resentments—run deep. As Robert Service shows, Russian contemporary attitudes are conditioned by its little-understood relationship with Islam. In Russia and Its Islamic World, Service explores nearly a thousand years of political, military, and religious tensions up to the present day.
He focuses on Russia's involvement with its Muslims, states and societies in ex-Soviet Central Asia, and wars throughout the Middle East as constituting the crucial triangle of Islamic factors that have shaped its past and will determine its future. It's a future that is unfolding now, as Russia claws its way back to great power status, resulting in a moment in world politics that Service calls "dangerous for the Russians and the rest of us."