Putin's People

A Sunday Times bestsellerbr This riveting, immaculately researched book is arguably the best single volume written about Putin, the people around him and perhaps even about contemporary Russia itself in the past three decades. Peter Frankopan, Financial TimesA staggering achievement of reporting. bJoshua Huminski, Diplomatic CourierInterference in American elections. the sponsorship of extremist politics in Europe. War in Ukraine. In recent years, Vladimir Putins Russia has waged a concerted campaign to expand its influence and undermine Western institutions. But how and why did all this come about, and who has orchestrated it?In Putins People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putins Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russias economy and legal system and extended the Kremlins reach into the United States and Europe. the result is a chilling and revelatory exposé of the KGBs revanchea story that begins in the murk of the Soviet collapse, when networks of operatives were able to siphon billions of dollars out of state enterprises and move their spoils into the West. Putin and his allies subsequently completed the agenda, reasserting Russian power while taking control of the economy for themselves, suppressing independent voices, and launching covert influence operations abroad. Ranging from Moscow and London to Switzerland and Brooklyns Brighton Beachand assembling a colorful cast of characters to matchPutins People is the definitive account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.