All the Kremlin's Men

Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar's 2016 inside account of Vladimir Putin's two and a half decades in power, based on hundreds of off-the-record interviews with senior officials, oligarchs, and Kremlin insiders. The book presents Putin not as a strategic mastermind but as a reactive leader shaped by his courtiers and circumstances. Zygar co-founded the independent TV channel Dozhd (Rain) and fled Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine; his books were removed from Russian shelves.