Mafia State is a brilliant and haunting account of the insidious methods used by a resurgent Kremlin against its so-called ""enemies"" - human rights workers, western diplomats, journalists and opposition activists. It includes unpublished material from confidential US diplomatic cables, released last year by WikiLeaks, which describe Russia as a ""virtual mafia state"". Harding gives a unique, personal and compelling portrait of today's Russia, two decades after the end of communism, that reads like a spy thriller.