But there was no revolution. As Judah argues, no one wanted one. Russia had already had too many revolutions. The opposition were disunited and incoherent. The demonstrators were the urban middle class, not all of Russia. Order remained more important to most Russians than rights. In the 2012 election Putin was convincingly returned to the presidency. And the regime has since set about re-establishing control of the street. The law on "treason" has been tightened. Leading oppositionists face jail on trumped-up charges. The internet, hitherto a glorious exception among Russia's shackled media, now faces regulation. Meanwhile, in a serious political shift, Putin has changed constituency. It is to the poorer, more nationalistic and more xenophobic Russia that he increasingly looks for support.

Where next? Judah is pretty downbeat. He points to a "wounded" Putin, but also one who could survive decades if the oil price holds up. As he crisscrosses Russia he quotes most of his interlocutors as despising the system but helpless to do anything about it. He damns virtually every leader of the opposition as either irrelevant or unsavoury. And, in a striking coda written close to the Russo-Chinese border, he contrasts a decayed, alcoholic, Russian wasteland with encroaching, carefully-tended, soya bean fields — Chinese investments farmed with Chinese labour.

Even with its faults  — some overwriting, too many misprints, and a lack of sympathy with the real risks Russian oppositionists are taking — this is a rich and thoughtful book. But Judah's conclusion is too dark. A long literary tradition attests how easy it is to fall into exaggerated gloom about Russia. Despite everything, the country is in a much better state than it was before Putin took over, and has weathered the 2008 financial crisis in stronger shape than most of the rest of Europe. The Russian ruling clique (to none of whom, as far as I can see, Judah spoke) is fully aware of the cul-de-sac the country is now in. Even those grabbing the golden eggs know that the goose is sick. And it is not comfortable for avowed modernisers to find themselves excoriated by the country's most modern elements. The challenge they face is to reform the system without bringing on the anarchy that all Russians both remember and fear. Medvedev made tentative, and ultimately failed, efforts in that direction. There will be more.