The Moscow Playbook How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Gold

An eye-opening account of how Russia’s leaders have used sports as a political tool to solidify their global power

“Victories in sport do more to cement the nation than a hundred political slogans.” This was the pep talk Russian athletes heard in 2000 from their new president, Vladimir Putin. And so, for more than two decades, Putin has used sports like his Soviet predecessors to stoke nationalism at home, boost prestige abroad, and cement his position as leader.

The Moscow Playbook: How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Gold is the first book to fully examine the intersection of Russian sports and geopolitical power, from the dominant Soviet teams of past Olympics to recent doping scandals and international sanctions. With new research from Olympic archives, records of the Soviet bloc and current Russian media, historian Bruce Berglund shows how Moscow’s leaders have defied the rules of the game for decades as the world’s governing bodies turned a blind eye.

Featuring oligarchs, sportocrats, and famous athletes from Olga Korbut to Alex Ovechkin, this is a timely investigation into the gears of power, nationalism, and money that drive the Russian sports machine.

Bruce Berglund is a historian of Europe, Russia, and world sports. His articles on world sports have appeared in the Washington Post and CNN Opinion, and he has been interviewed for Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, National Public Radio, and television and radio programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. A proud son of Duluth, Bruce lives in a small town in southern Minnesota. He is the author of The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports.