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Catherine Belton

Putin's People: A Times Book of the Year 2021 – The Story of Russia’s History and Politics Paperback – 15 April 2021

by Catherine Belton (Author)

3,316 ratings

in Historical Biographies 1501-1700

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘An outstanding exposé of Putin and his criminal pals … [A] long-awaited, must read book’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Books about modern Russia abound … Belton has surpassed them all. Her much-awaited book is the best and most important on modern Russia’ THE TIMES

A chilling and revelatory expose of the KGB’s renaissance, Putin’s rise to power, and how Russian black cash is subverting the world.

In Putin’s People, former Moscow correspondent and investigative journalist Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and his entourage of KGB men seized power in Russia and built a new league of oligarchs.

Through exclusive interviews with key inside players, Belton tells how Putin’s people conducted their relentless seizure of private companies, took over the economy, siphoned billions, blurred the lines between organised crime and political powers, shut down opponents, and then used their riches and power to extend influence in the West.

In a story that ranges from Moscow to London, Switzerland and Trump’s America, Putin’s People is a gripping and terrifying account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.

‘A fearless, fascinating account … Reads at times like a John le Carré novel … A groundbreaking and meticulously researched anatomy of the Putin regime, Belton’s book shines a light on the pernicious threats Russian money and influence now pose to the west’ Guardian

Print length

656 pages
Language

English
Publisher

William Collins
Publication date

15 April 2021
Dimensions

12.9 x 4.17 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

0007578814
ISBN-13

978-0007578818
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Product description

Review

‘This is the most remarkable account so far of Putin’s rise … Groundbreaking … several hair-raising revelations … Relentless and convincing. There are gobsmacking moments … This is a superb book’
OBSERVER

‘A fearless, fascinating account … Reads at times like a John le Carré novel… A groundbreaking and meticulously researched anatomy of the Putin regime, Belton’s book shines a light on the pernicious threats Russian money and influence now pose to the west’
GUARDIAN

‘Modern Russia in full, horrifying technicolour … 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

‘Books about modern Russia abound … Belton has surpassed them all. Her much-awaited book is the best and most important on modern Russia. It benefits from a meticulous compilation of open sources, but also from the accounts of disillusioned Kremlin insiders, former business cronies and some remarkably candid people still high up in the system. The result is hair-raising.’
THE TIMES

‘An outstanding exposé of Putin and his criminal pals … [A] long-awaited, must read book’
SUNDAY TIMES

‘Arguably the biggest story of the 21st century so far. In forensically unravelling it, journalist Catherine Belton has done a great service, producing a book that western experts on modern Russia acknowledge as vital to our understanding of the Putin phenomenon’
DAILY MAIL, BOOK OF THE WEEK

‘A serious, absolutely timely warning. No book has documented the Russian president’s leadership so indefatigably and compellingly’
DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘Meticulously researched and superbly written; terrifying in its scope and utterly convincing in its argument … The Putin book that we've been waiting for’
OLIVER BULLOUGH

‘An extraordinarily important book’
CHRIS PATTEN

Book Description

A Times Book of the Year 2021 – The Story of Russia’s History and Politics

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Collins; 1st edition (15 April 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 656 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0007578814
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007578818
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 4.17 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1 in Historical Biographies 1501-1700
- 1 in Russian Historical Biographies
- 1 in British Historical Biographies 1501-1700

Customer reviews:
3,316 ratings

About the author

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Catherine Belton

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Catherine Belton is the former long-serving Moscow Correspondent for the Financial Times. She has previously reported on Russia for Moscow Times and Business Week. In 2008, she was shortlisted for Business Journalist of the year at the British Press Awards. She lives in London.

Customer reviews

5 star		67%
4 star		21%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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bettyparry

She's Still Alive.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2020

Verified Purchase

The author was Financial Times journalist in Moscow from 2007-13 and gets 5 stars for 2 reasons: a). for the amount of detail she has put in and b). for still breathing. I treated it as i do for Tolstoy novels, ie. list the characters so that i don't lose the plot. It traces the development of Putin from small fry KGB spy to senior St. Petersburg official to President. Putin got involved with criminal gangs there which worked together with the ruling local government elite as a team. This gave them power and wealth. What he learnt there he used in Moscow when he joined up with Yeltsin and started his political rise. With Yeltsin's disaster of destroying the state through an alcoholic haze, a new breed of Russian tycoons took over. They bought the state's assets at knockdown prices and became billionaires overnight. These oligarchs virtually ran things for their own interests and funneled their money into the West especially USA, UK and Switzerland. The latter state keeps popping up in the book as it uses its unique position in the world and fills its boots. It operates under the radar as it did during the wars.
The KGB used to funnel funds all over the world to spread its influence from funding wars to bribing officials to become spies. When the USSR collapsed and that structure fell apart, the USA took full advantage and spread its power as the only superpower left via NATO as the Warsaw Pact vanished. The Russians being a very proud nation and losing their pre-eminence on the world stage were desperate for a strong leader and along comes Putin. (Is there a parallel i ask myself with Germany in the 30s). A major point she makes in the book is that when Gorby ended the Cold War the West let their guard down. She makes it very clear that it is now in Cold War Mark 2 under Putin and that Russia is winning. Putin aims to destroy the West's alliances and that Russia becomes a superpower again. She explains that Trump had a lot of contacts with Russia from 2001 and when he won the Presidency the Russian Parliament was delighted. They were proven correct as most of Trump's foreign policy ties in perfectly with Putin's aims.
When Putin came to power there was a royal battle with the oligarchs to become top dogs. The richest oligarch at that time was Khodorkovsky. Putin used him as a scapegoat by stitching him up via the legal system which was controlled by him. K. got 10 years in jail and the ECHR stated, "that the court violated K's human rights". This was letting the oligarchs know who was in charge and do what i say or finish up in jail. There is a lot of evidence that Abramovich is in his back pocket. He was told to buy Chelsea FC to enter the UK. This he did amongst many other things rather than have his empire taken off him by the state ie. Putin as happened to K. The author provides plenty of evidence showing that the oligarchs do as he tells them. Lots of money that they have is now used to fund and finance activities that was done previously by the Communist State Party. Thus the FSB now carries on the work that the KGB used to do. Russian oligarchs move into Chelsea, London and Brighton Beach, USA. The whole purpose is to destroy by being the enemy within. Reading the book, J Biden comes out of it very well due to his knowledge of how Putin operates. Putin operates through his people so has PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY, ie. you can't touch me. She shows that a lot of the Dirty Money is funneled into London and some of it to the Conservative Party. ie. illegal money mostly.
Another main point in the book is that Russia is now a criminal state. The murders carried out all over the world from Litvinenko in London to the slaughter of Chechens in the war that Russia carried out there. The legal system is totally under the control of Putin and the oligarchs too. Criminal gangs are used by Putin for what he sees are the benefit of the nation. He has broken and altered the constitution so that he keeps in power for as long as he wants. A lot of circumstantial evidence that Trump was financed by Dirty Russian money via Deutsche bank which suggests that he is compromised by Putin. In other words, Putin has so much power over Trump that he has to abide by what he wants. As Pelosi said " when it comes to you Donald, everything leads to Putin". The things he does certainly make it seem so. M Cohen and F Sater (Joe Pesci in the future film) were big friends for decades and the go-between for Trump and Putin. Putin uses and discards his people when he no longer needs them such as Sergei Pugachev and B Berezovsky, as does Trump eg. M Cohen and J Sessions.
Excellent read, very detailed, very brave. Hopefully Americans will read this book, ( those that are left after Trump's pathetic Covid-19 policy) and realize that the USA can't take another 4 years of Trump. If they want a leader who believes in Putin more than their Intelligence Agencies, then they need to get rid of them and reduce their taxes.

337 people found this helpful

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Dickens

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 April 2020

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent,thoroughly gripping, piece of Journalism.

If you want to know about how a Moscow Organised Crime Gang has links both to Trump and Boris Johnson and more importantly why, then this book will explain it all.

Too often, in recent times ,it’s been easy to get lost in a list of complex companies, foreign names and supposedly detailed plots surrounding Russia. But, in reality, just follow the money and bids for power. This book, written by a former Financial Times Moscow Correspondent will help you do this.

Read this book, it will open your eyes to what has been going on.

103 people found this helpful

Helpful

N. Frei

A must-read for Russia aficionados

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 April 2020

Verified Purchase

I very much enjoyed the book, it's well written and very fluid to read. The author managed to tell Russia's very complex story of the last 20 years in an insightful book that at times reads almost like a page-turning thriller.

82 people found this helpful

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Gazzarian

Various alloys of disgrace

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2020

Verified Purchase

At times, reading this excellent work, I wondered how the author kept her bearings. After decades of wading thigh deep in ordure. It must be difficult to explore all this and keep your sanity.

There is not a single honourable character (excepting the occasional brave journalist and, more rarely, lawyer). There are just constantly shifting sands of allegiance between self interested criminals, who fight each other for gold and power. Some victors, some losers, but we all know who the real victims are.

Profoundly depressing, even disturbing, but Ms Belton has done the world a great service with this magnificent expose. I just hope she doesn't suffer from nightmares.

64 people found this helpful

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Marcella

Putin's People

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2020

Verified Purchase

Amazingly researched and detailed book which should be compulsory for our politicians who are totally deluded about Russia.

58 people found this helpful

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MAC

A Book that is as Much a Discrete Critique of Western Capitalism as it is of the Russian version.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2020

Verified Purchase

I remember reading John Gray’s ‘False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism’ (Granta, London, 1998) and what he described as Russian ‘anarcho-capitalism’ in Chapter 6 as a result of the chaos caused by the hard economic medicine the West (particularly the U.S.) inflicted on Russia with the fall of communism.

Gray was appalled then by the rise of the oligarchs and social disorder endured by ordinary Russians – enough to seriously question Western free market ideology.

I wonder what he would make of Ms Belton’s description, now.

Would Gray have foreseen how nationalist KGB stalwarts have morphed into the new but also enduring rulers of the modern Russian capitalist state?

Because it seems to me reading this book, that all Gray’s worries have come true and more so.

Having just finished this important book, I have been dazzled by the sheer resourcefulness of the writer as a researcher, the simply huge amounts of money being bandied about as well as the characters with their unfamiliar Eurasian names.

If Belton’s book gets close to how things are really working in Russia then it is fair to say that it’s a shame – a disappointment. I have no grounds to disbelieve her (nor underestimate the risks she is running by writing this book).

However, for all the research there are a number of minor issues with the book.

Firstly, Belton takes too light a touch on the problems with Western capitalism – problems that I think helped to influence the new Russian style of capitalism which can be seen as rejection of Western ways and means. This factor is mentioned but not explored deeply enough for me, so at times the book leans heavily on what she has discovered about Putin, his connections and what has taken place. I suppose if Belton was to take a more causal approach – asking ‘Why?’ a bit more often – she ran the risk of being seen an apologist for the way in which Russia is governed today (and the way this huge country is governed is far from satisfactory).

Secondly, the text could have done with some information on what it is like for ordinary Russians to live in a country governed in the way she describes. What is the quality of life or standard of living like now as opposed to the Yeltsin or even the Communist years? I remember pictures of Muscovites in the 1990’s selling personal items just to live; soldiers going without pay; the poor and unwell freezing to death in winter. What is the Russian health service like these days? Belton tell us that Putin’s regime talked about raising the retirement age for example. Just a bit more background about what was happening to your everyday average Russian whilst all these shenanigans took place would have been useful.

Two things come to mind from reading this book.

(1) That the West has failed to understand Russia and (2) fails to recognise the rampant and manifest imperfections of its own Western style of ‘democracy’ and capitalism and its effects on Russia’s style of capitalism ( resulting in what I would describe as a rejection of the West and a ‘Russian anti-West reactionary capitalism’).

In failing to understand Russia, what was there to understand? Well first, the vastness of the country which is bound to have geo-political challenges whatever ideological style of Government. I do not think that the small state thinking prevalent in the West has one iota of imagination in even considering that challenge.

Next up is the richness of Russia’s natural resources – oil and gas, sea ports, water etc., all waiting to be utilised and exploited (managed). Russia needs to have a strong central Government and the means by which to do this – look at history and how even the Tsars for all their cruelty knew this.

Yet, when communism goes on the back foot, in comes the Neo-liberal ideology from the West with its anti-Statism and insistence on a ‘small state with a light touch’ concerning the regulation of business, finance, markets and the environment and hey presto, Russia gets the Yeltsin era and the oligarchs and people selling their personal stuff at the market in order to live. In other words, this was Western created disaster for Russia which was driven at speed into an ideological brick wall.

So, Russia listened to the West and in doing so – almost overnight, its prestige and its social fabric began to crumble for all the world to see. The insistence by the West on some sort ‘shock doctrine’ instead of Gorbachev’s slower transition was a missed opportunity for the West to promote a different way to Moscow and the Russian people.

And to heap even more ordure on the situation, the winning ideology offers this proud nation - whose contribution to dealing with the Nazis was salient to say the least - loans at interest, ‘to turn things’ around and speed things up. What was the final indignity for Russia? Perhaps being offered IMF loans by someone who has just beaten them after a long ideological conflict, in their currency of course - dollars.

The real truth is that the West’s ‘shrink the state light touch’ mantra is known to cause problems even in the West – think about the U.S.’s inability to help New Orleans after hurricane Katrina (and its contribution to the failure of the levies beforehand); think about Boris Johnson’s inability to deal with Covid 19 in the UK because of austerity ravaged public services and a predilection for private provision over public. Think about the 2008 crash caused by the private banking sector’s lack of regulation and all the crashes before that. Think about the environmental degradation and rising levels of income inequality.

The West has to face up to the fact that it has no idea what good governance is any more - its own domestic mode of Governance is weak and unprincipled and dominated by a love of money, as Belton quotes a Russian interviewee (p. 488):

‘We believed in Western values..................... But it turned out everything depended on money, and all those values were pure hypocrisy’.

Western capitalism is beset by faults that must seem very strange to the Kremlin:

The ability of so called businessmen to buy power in companies through the stock market and then get a majority of shareholders behind them, sell the company off, liquidate its assets and take the proceeds but destroy jobs and communities and leave national governments to clear up the mess.

The ability for companies to avoid tax through offshore tax havens and hinder sovereign governments’ ability to collect taxes to curb inflation as the money makes its way back into the economy as loans.

The ability to arbitrage sovereign nations when deciding where to locate business and get the lowest tax rates, environmental and finance regulations that work against state national policy and sovereignty.

The ability of large shareholders to force companies to purchase their own shares in share buy-backs so that the share price is raised so that those who press for them can sell off their shares at huge personal profit but leave the companies more indebted than before and then likely to make cut backs to jobs and even cease trading – the state left dealing with the consequences again.

The ability of investors to buy credit default swaps – a derivative created by under-regulated private finance markets that is like taking out insurance on something that you don’t own and profiting from it if there is a drop in financial performance (along with the ability to influence market decisions so that something does indeed go wrong resulting in a big pay out).

The ability for a nation to lose key national assets and even security sensitive sectors to foreign powers that compromises sovereignty and national security though the markets.

The list could go on. But how desirable are these behaviours? In whose interest are they? Who in their right mind would call these tendencies ‘good’ when one considers the impact on nationhood?

Reading Belton’s book amplifies the fact for me at least that capitalism in today’s world is most definitely in crisis.

We can have capitalism that is good – one that uses money to solve problems for the wider society and allocates resources fairly.

But instead we have a capitalism in the West that worships the resource (money) and pays less heed to the objectives/problems more fairer distribution of money could address.

So what we get is mass hoarding of the money resource for self enrichment and power by a few powerful institutions and people instead that can challenge even State sovereignty.

And I don’t see a willingness to tackle any of this anywhere at the moment in the West. And I’m sure that through Russian eyes, this situation would be intolerable.

The West has made a huge error of judgement in dealing with post communist Russia. Things could have been so much better. We didn’t have to rub the demise of communism into their faces. It was not enough to win it seems. We had to have them on their knees. And when Russia needed help, instead all we offered half baked ideas that even the West refuses to accept cause harm.

My conclusion is this: if the West wants to change Russia for the best, give it a reason. Set an example for once. The Western (U.S.) style of capitalism has to change first – it really does. Our own house needs to be put in order before we can really criticise and insist on better from Russia.

Otherwise......well, we can forget it and reap the consequences.

The links with Trump; the painful demise of Litvenenko and others; the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury, possible Russian interference in U.S, and UK democracy - none of these are justifiable to me and I’m not making excuses .........but the consequences have begun already in my view.

What to do? Well, I think the West needs to apologise for a start. If we were really thinking about the Russian people and genuinely concerned about their welfare and freedoms, we must apologise to them and their leaders and see if – having comprehensively reformed ourselves – we can start again.

But the rapprochement with Russia must also realise that Russia is different and not insist on it being exactly the same as us and not impose our faulty economic and political models on them. Then we might get a genuinely different Russian capitalist democracy. Russia has the potential to show the world of the benefits of a strong state. It does not at this moment – far, far from it. But it could.

I highly recommend this book.

42 people found this helpful

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Putin's People: A Times Book of the Year 2021 – The Story of Russia’s History and Politics Paperback – 15 April 2021

Enhance your purchase

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘An outstanding exposé of Putin and his criminal pals … [A] long-awaited, must read book’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Books about modern Russia abound … Belton has surpassed them all. Her much-awaited book is the best and most important on modern Russia’ THE TIMES

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Putin's People: A Times Book of the Year 2021 – The Story of Russia’s History and Politics Paperback – 15 April 2021

Enhance your purchase

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘An outstanding exposé of Putin and his criminal pals … [A] long-awaited, must read book’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Books about modern Russia abound … Belton has surpassed them all. Her much-awaited book is the best and most important on modern Russia’ THE TIMES

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