
Putin's People
How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
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Narrated by:
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Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
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Written by:
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Catherine Belton
About this listen
"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 exposé of the KGB’s revanche - a 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 Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach - and assembling a colorful cast of characters to match - Putin’s People is the definitive account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.
Financial Times Books of the Year - 2020
The Telegraph (UK) Best Books of the Year - 2020
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
©2020 Catherine Belton (P)2020 Macmillan AudioWhat listeners say about Putin's People
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- Jennifer Gillingham
- 2020-11-30
Interesting look into Putins past
An extremely entertaining listen. I was hooked from start to finish. Probably worth some fact checks, and the author is clearly biased against Trump. Still great!
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- fishface42
- 2021-08-31
Read the printed book.
Crucial and appalling story of Russia’s devolution to a mafia state with Putin as godfather. Packed with evidential facts to the point that I was often in a brain fog of Russian names and villainous characters, all turning into a blur. Nonetheless, important reading to learn how Putin and his secret services are undermining democracy and the rule of law worldwide. Narrator is irritating; listen to excerpt and decide.
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- Patricia Smith
- 2021-08-22
A real page turner
Belton provides great insight into Russia today, where Putin came from, how he came upon such enormous tsar-like power, and how he, and his cronies, seek to control the West today. I have often wondered why the West has tolerated Putin’s political interference and blatant assassination campaigns for so long and in this book it becomes depressingly clear why, endemic corruption. All levels of political power in the West have been bought to one degree or another and as long as it doesn’t really affect the voters, nothing in done. This a is very brave piece of journalism and I hope Belton not only survives the UK libel courts where she is being sued by a couple of the named oligarchs, but also survives Putin’s thirst for revenge. She also names and shames a number of other political characters, how they will react will also be interesting to see. There is so much detail and the narrator speaks so quickly that I need to listen to it again now just to get the facts straight in my head. My only criticism is the narrator who seems constantly out of breath.
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-08-03
Fascinatingly Depressing
A very well researched and detailed history of recent Russian politics that then goes into how Russia corrupted Western banking, business and politics.
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