S&S picks up BBC Russia correspondent Rainsford's 'essential' insight into Putin regime

Simon & Schuster has landed BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford’s "compelling" insight into Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The publisher acquired UK and Commonwealth Volume rights to I’m Not Your Enemy from Matthew Hamilton at the Hamilton Agency.

Rainsford was first posted to Moscow for the BBC in 2000, covering major stories including the sinking of the "Kursk" submarine and the Beslan school siege. After stints as BBC correspondent in Istanbul, Madrid and Havana, she returned to Russia in 2014 as it annexed Crimea and went to war in eastern Ukraine, and was based in Moscow until she was expelled as a "security threat" on 31st August 2021. A fluent Russian speaker, she has spent almost a third of her life in the country.

Deputy publishing director Ian Marshall said: "Sarah’s compelling new book, based on many years of getting to know the people of Russia, shines a light on the often forgotten heroes of the story: the victims of Vladimir Putin’s regime. By focusing away from the corridors of power, she brings a human perspective to a story that is often seen in terms of faceless, implacable forces – as we are seeing right now, with Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine. 

"It is her brilliant attention to the vital smaller details, based on her intimate knowledge of the people and places of Russia, that makes her portrait of the country such a powerful and essential read." 

Rainsford said: "Russia today believes it’s at war with the West but it’s also waging a war within, where those who think differently are labelled as enemies, foreign agents and even traitors. My own expulsion gave me a taste of how that feels, so I’m excited Simon & Schuster has given me this opportunity to write a very personal account of the attack on freedoms that I’ve witnessed in Russia as it’s gradually dropped all pretence of being a democracy."

Publication is slated for early 2024.