Russia seems to be in for a bout of economic free-fall at the moment, thanks to tumbling oil prices and a severely battered ruble.

That hasn’t fazed President Vladimir Putin, though, who said in his year-end media conference last week that his country has seen worse times and will bounce back within two years.

Those who lived through the economic hardships of the 1990s might agree, but Russia’s monied class must be wondering whether the era of excess, propelled by huge oil revenues, are winding down.

That period has no better chronicler than Peter Pomerantsev, a British writer whose parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

He returned to Russia in recent years to work as a reality television producer, and to make entertainment programs like “How to Marry a Millionaire” that were Western in style, but avoided politics.

In his new book Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of The New Russia, Pomerantsev explores the cynical, brutal, and dazzling world of the nouveau riche…. CLICK HERE for the complete article