I find it amusing that an article that's supposed to criticize a controlled media system is itself a thinly veiled advertisement. I guess mass media has issues everywhere you look :)
New York times regularly publishes book reviews. They even have that thing they call "NYT Bestsellers" [1]. I'm not sure why that seems problematic to you?
As a book review, it's a near-complete failure. You hear very little about what the book recounts about Russian propaganda, which is the main interest; instead we get fluff about his school chess club used his Sovietness to intimidate others. That may be a cute biographical detail fine for a book, but is a waste of limited space in a book review.
Plugging a book is hardly an issue comparable to for example 200 murdered journalists...