The 14 best books to help you understand Vladimir Putin’s Russia
This list offers the most incisive books on the past and present of Russia and its president.
ByVladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia and has been the country’s leader, with an interlude as prime minister, for more than 22 years. Putin was born in 1952, studied law at Leningrad State University and served for 15 years as a KGB officer before becoming a politician in 1991.
Russia’s war on the future
Unable to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, Vladimir Putin is targeting the next generation.
By
The Global South’s lost dream of mediated peace in Ukraine
The G20 summit may prove that Vladimir Putin has annoyed too many countries with significant clout in international affairs.
By
Alexander Lukashenko: The broker of Belarus
The Belarussian dictator has entangled himself further in Russia’s war.
By
“The guy I was before the Russians captured me has died”
Inside the torture chambers where Putin’s forces tried to eradicate Ukrainian identity.
By
The meaning of Alexei Navalny’s conviction
Vladimir Putin is determined to curb the opposition leader’s influence.
By
There is only one way to win a war of attrition
Outside cheerleaders and anxious supporters cannot force the pace of the conflict in Ukraine.
By
What happens if the Russian state collapses?
The West yearns for Vladimir Putin to fall – yet this could trigger mayhem in Russia, and instability throughout Europe.
By
Former Wagner commander: “Putin will lose the war in disgrace”
Marat Gabidullin on the failed rebellion, Wagner’s future in Africa and Prigozhin’s political ambitions.
By
What realists get wrong about Ukraine’s counteroffensive
Critics such as John Mearsheimer are wrong to present the war as a simple artillery duel in which the advantage…
By
When war comes to Wimbledon
As Russian competitors return to SW19, the Ukrainian player Sergiy Stakhovsky continues to fight on the front line.
By
It is naive to think that Vladimir Putin’s fall is imminent
Failed coups often have few major consequences, and the Wagner Group’s mutiny may not alter the Ukraine war’s outcome.
By
Mutiny of the mercenaries
Prigozhin’s putsch has cast doubt on the future of Russia’s war.
By
The paralysis of power
Is this the beginning of the end of the Putin system – or will the autocrat endure?
By
Worse could follow Putin
The focus for policymakers must be the prospect that Putin will be replaced by someone even more hostile to the…
By
The fake tsar
The truth is out there: there is no Russian state.
By
Russia’s tipping point
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny has shattered the false reality of Putin's Russia.
By
Rebellion comes to Russia
What Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny means for the future of Vladimir Putin’s regime.
By
The Prigozhin Mutiny
The Wagner Group commander’s rebellion will have far-reaching implications.
By
Peter Morgan’s Patriots confronts the rise of Putin in post-Soviet Russia
Tom Hollander plays the ambitious, politically well-connected billionaire Boris Berezovsky in this absorbing portrait of a power struggle.
By