Kleptopia

A look into how criminals turn money into power and back again as and when needed, and how nation states can become complicit in the crime.

It’s hard not to think of Oliver Bullough’s excellent Moneyland¹ when reading this but Kleptopia very much adds to the discourse rather than repeats it, and this book brings the narrative very much to the present day (well, 2020) by carefully describing how Donald Trump fits into the equation.

Starting with Kazakhstan and other ex-Soviet republics, Burgis pulls on the thread until the whole story unravels into a very ugly, depressing tale of how spectacular amounts of money have been stolen out of public coffers.

It’s a lot to follow and deals with a huge cast of characters but Burgis writes well and makes it a real page-turning true crime novel, but it’s us who are the victims.

You don’t need a book to tell you that the current rise in nationalist leaders has not been particularly good for the world, but seeing exactly how and why they have been wanting to gain power is eye opening.