The Great Showdown. How Putin Wages War on Our Democracies

Original title: La Grande Confrontation. Comment Poutine fait la guerre à nos démocraties

Publication Date:

April 2023

Pages:

198

Original language and publisher

French | Allary Editions

Territories Handled

Worldwide excl. French

Territories Sold

Brazil (Autentica, in a preempt)

Genre

Current Affairs

Number of copies sold:

28,000

Awards:

  • Prix Jean Daniel 2023 (shortlist)

Foreign Covers

 Cover
Autentica

The Great Showdown. How Putin Wages War on Our Democracies

Original title: La Grande Confrontation. Comment Poutine fait la guerre à nos démocraties

Synopsis

“A salutary and synthetic essay. Vertiginous.”—Axel Gyldén, L’Express

“Raphaël Glucksmann calls for broadening our field of vision on the war in Ukraine.” —Jerome Cadet, France Inter

“A book to take the measure of the great confrontation that Putin has been imposing on us for twenty years.”—Thomas Snégaroff, C Politique, France 5

“Raphaël Glucksmann paints the portrait of a naive European elite, fascinated or financially interested in Putin’s Russia or Xi’s China.”—Thomas Legrand, Libération

“A break-through book.”—Yann Barthes, Quotidien, TMC

Raphaël Glucksmann is a Member of the European Parliament, founder and chairman of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Foreign Interference.

In this new book, Glucksmann reveals how, out of blindness, weakness, or greed, a part of the Western elites have been allowing hostile foreign powers to work in the heart of our democracies for years, until destabilizing them.

Of those powers, the most aggressive one is Russia. By recruiting politicians at the highest government level, it has, for example, made Germany dependent on Russian hydrocarbons. At the helm is a certain Matthias Warnig, a former Stasi agent who has become close to Putin and is the boss of the Nordstream gas pipeline, which has recruited former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to its board.

Germany is not the only country affected. Corruption of the elites, financing of anti- European parties, or fake news campaigns on social networks: Russia’s hybrid war affects all the countries of the European Union as well as the United States. It started long before the invasion of Ukraine, which is only the visible face of this great confrontation. It is time to understand this and draw the consequences if we want to defend our democratic model against these powers, Russia and China, that want to bring it down.

Raphaël Gluckmann is followed by nearly a million people on social networks. He has mobilized Europe against the exploitation of the Uyghur people. This book is his new battle.

Marketing Information

  • Upon publication, the book went straight to the #1 position in the French bestseller list for essays

Foreign Covers

 Cover
Autentica