Malevolent Republic

by K S Komireddi

  I’d be remiss if I did not mention the friends who, sustaining me over the years, played a part in this project: Laura John, Katie Earnshaw, Colleen Coalter, Edward Martin, Zarir Cama, Richard Sehmer, Miranda Frum, Prashant Maske, Richard ‘Pandit’ Smith, Mahesh Soni, Jasmina Emanov, Charanjit Singh Dhillon, William Kell, Andrew Anthony, Mehr Husain, Simona Haivas, Darryl Stein, Issam Ahmed, Joel Jackson, Purushottam Gautam, Anupam Kaushish and Sabeen Siddiqui. Peter Taheri, dearest of friends, stole time from his clients and constituents to read every word and offer invaluable suggestions. Zunaira Fayyaz guided this book from inception to completion with incandescent insight and fierce but constructive criticism. The debt owed to them, for this and so much else besides, is un-repayable. The existence of Nina ‘Chino’ Tumanishvili, Georgia’s atonement for Stalin and Saakashvili, is one of the blessings of my life.

  I thank Andrew, Sabeen, Zuni Baby, Peter (and others I cannot name) for reading and offering comments on various drafts of chapters. If there is anything that you, dear reader, find especially egregious, the fault, it goes without saying, is entirely theirs and not mine.