Iverson gives us an inside look at what has been going on in Russia (and it's satellite countries) since the late 1990's. And it is frightening!
A "FBI legal attaché", the author was assigned to the Russian area, and spent many years covering it. Supposedly there to aid the FBI in developing contacts with the Russian authorities, and them with the FBI, it really seemed more like "spy vs. spy". Both sides trying to turn the other into a useful source of intelligence.
Where the book really shines is in how Iverson lays out the current situation in Russia. How Putin has completely dismantled any remnants of a young country trying democracy for the first time. How he has smashed and obliterated any dissension or opposition. And how he continues it to this day. All in the hopes of creating his version of "old Russia", where they led the world through fear and strength.
I really feel for the Russian people. They have suffered through generations of corrupt administration and leaders.

Iverson spent twenty-two years working for the FBI. The most notable part of his time was spent in the Russian Federation where he watched the democracy created under Yeltsin slowly deteriorate into the dictatorship of Putin. Iverson spends a good time of the book describing how the "new" Russia was out to create the old Soviet Union.

He discusses how while working as a liaison with Russian intelligence, they spend the majority of their time together trying to "turn" the Americans. From offers of money and other favors, the try to get the American Agents in compromising positions, or preying of those who are vulnerable because of the personal failures (extra marital affairs, drug use, alcoholism). These compromised agents are then mined for any information they have or that they can get.

But it is his understanding of the "culture" of the Russian psyche that is the real pleasure of this book. Anyone with a Russian genealogy has stories about what a dark hole those in Russia live in and how, under Putin, you are always being watched and others are listening to you. The Russians didn't invent paranoia but they've spent hundreds of years perfecting and creating it.