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Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West

by Catherine Belton

Power networks behind Putin’s Russia

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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    New York Times bestseller

  • Editorial selection

    New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

    Named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Peter Frankopan in the Financial Times

    Peter Frankopan called the book arguably the best single volume written about Putin, his circle, and contemporar...

AlbakiReads Editorial

Power networks behind Putin’s Russia

Catherine Belton traces the rise of Vladimir Putin and the circle of former KGB figures around him, connecting their ascent to changes in Russia’s political and economic order. The account describes the replacement of influential tycoons from the Yeltsin era with loyal oligarchs, and examines how those networks are presented as shaping the economy, legal system, and Russia’s influence abroad. Its scope links domestic power-building with the Kremlin’s engagement with the United States and Europe, placing contemporary tensions in a broader account of how Putin’s circle consolidated influence.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Russian and Soviet politics and the rise of Putin’s government.
  • Readers seeking an investigative account of oligarchs, state power, and Russia’s relations with the West.
  • Readers interested in the political networks surrounding the Kremlin.

Themes

Kremlin power and political consolidationKGB and post-Soviet RussiaOligarchs and the Russian economyRussian influence in the United States and Europe

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Named a best book of the year by The Economist Financial TimesNew Statesman The Telegraph

"[Putin's People] will surely now become the definitive account of the rise of Putin and Putinism." --Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic

"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 Times


Interference in American elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics in Europe. War in Ukraine. In recent years, Vladimir Putin's 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 Putin's 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 Putin's 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 Russia's economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe. The result is a chilling and revelatory expos

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