"Putin's Russia in Five Murders": Journalist Helga Salemon Presents Book in Amsterdam
The book launch of Dutch journalist and researcher Helga Salemon, who worked at the Dutch Embassy in Moscow from 2007 to 2010, took place on Friday evening at the Pegasus publishing house bookstore. Founded back in 1935 to publish Marxist literature, Pegasus today specializes in Eastern and Central European culture.
The presentation, which drew around 50 people, was attended by Dutch actors and journalists, including Eva Jinek, a well-known journalist and host of the evening political talk show "Eva." The event also featured a speech by Oleg Khomutinnikov, director of SOTA Media, a former Lipetsk lawmaker, and a member of the leadership of Open Russia, who emigrated to the Netherlands in 2021. Against the backdrop of the book's themes, he was asked whether he feels safe in the Netherlands.
"People like Garry Kasparov are probably at the top of Putin's lists?" Salemon asked.
"As long as he is alive, I can feel safe," Oleg joked.
Salemon immediately warned the guests that, unlike her first book, "Russian Devastation," which was based on personal and at times tragicomic stories about Russia, her new work is heavy. "This is a book about darkness and tragedy," she said. Nevertheless, the author tried to maintain a sense of irony even during the presentation. She joked that the bookstore's cramped and stuffy hall helped the guests get a better feel for the book's atmosphere. Salemon recalled the chapter on Sergei Magnitsky, who was held in a cell so overcrowded that at one point he could only stand on one leg.
The book focuses on five deaths linked to the Putin era: journalist Anna Politkovskaya, politician and—as the author calls him—"Yeltsin's crown prince" Boris Nemtsov, former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to Salemon, through the stories of these five murders, the reader walks, as it were, through the "dark corridors of the Kremlin" and begins to understand how Putin's Russia functions. At the same time, the book shows how Western leaders chose to ignore these killings for the sake of doing business with Russia.
In a comment to Sota, Salemon explained that she did not include the death of Navalny in the book because readers are better informed about it than the other deaths, and furthermore, they could have previously learned about those events through his book "Patriot."
A special place in Salemon's speech was dedicated to the story of Anna Politkovskaya. Salemon recalled how in 2005 she met the journalist in this very bookstore during a presentation of the book "Putin's Russia" and asked her for an autograph. "And when on October 7, 2006, on Putin's birthday, I read that Politkovskaya had been shot dead in her apartment building, I got goosebumps," the journalist said. It was then, according to her, that the idea for the future book began to take shape.
Concluding her speech, Salemon said that she views her book not only as an account of crimes and violence but also as a story of heroes and villains. "The villains will remain villains. And heroes never die," she said, referring to Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, Magnitsky, and Nemtsov. Salemon emphasized that today there are still Russians who continue to fight for a democratic Russia despite the threats and risks.
At the same time, we asked the publishing house employees if books by Russian writers had been "canceled" in the Netherlands. "No," one of the employees laughed. "People continue to buy Russian books. And, you know, bad publicity works too."