Collision and Collusion

by Janine R. Wedel

Collision and Collusion takes a hard, behind-the-scenes look at aid efforts, first in Central Europe, then in Russia and Ukraine. The book shows the slick "trans-actors" who played all sides and the globe-trotting "econolobbyists" who made grandiose promises. It exposes how Harvard's best and brightest, entrusted with millions of aid dollars, colluded with a Russian clan to create a system of tycoon capitalism that will plague the Russian people for decades - and which is widely blamed on the West. Collision and Collusion tells the tortuous tale of how Western donors, who set out to build democracy, instead often rekindled corruption, communist legacies, and anticapitalist sentiments.