How was Putin able to shape Russia into a violent imperialist dictatorship before the eyes of the world in order to wage a war of aggression against Ukraine and the values of the West?
The Russian opposition politician and activist Leonid Volkov is the closest confidant of the recently deceased and previously imprisoned dissident Alexei Navalny. For over a decade, he has campaigned for democracy and the rule of law in Russia and fought against corruption and arbitrary rule, first as a member of parliament in Yekaterinburg and later as Navalny's campaign manager and chief of staff. He now describes first-hand what it means to fight for years against a system that pretends to be democratic on the outside and resorts to increasingly harsh measures on the inside. His book is the gripping account of a contemporary witness who relentlessly exposes the brutal imperialist dynamics in post-Soviet Russia and shows what could have been recognised in the West years ago. To mark the second anniversary of the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Volkov has revised and expanded the book and added the currently most likely scenarios. Anyone who really wants to understand Russia, Putin and the invasion of Ukraine cannot ignore Volkov's explosive analysis.
