This Audible production has me wondering how my life could have been quite different if I'd followed that path instead of the translation path. A fruitless wondering of course, but I can't help myself. On New Year's Eve 1999, a young Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian TV screens - awkward, self-conscious. . .and the new President. Two decades later, Putin is still in power, standing self-assured and at ease on the world stage. How did a once little known KGB bureaucrat become one of the most dominant figures of 21st-century politics? What Mr Aslin has been through in the past year and a half has been incredibly traumatising. In writing his book, he has had to relive that trauma within months of being released.

Aiden was beaten and tortured by his Russian captors. Then

Then later we heard the medic give the time of death. Just hearing it and then knowing that person is now dead. He'd only been in the custody of that prison for 20 minutes." But for someone like me who is not aware about the Russian history, this book provided interesting tidbits about how the USSR came to be the Russia as it is now. Russian politics in the past 2 decades at the highest echelon has revolved around one man and this takes a look at some instances of his journey from the clearly unsavvy media engagement at the start to how he controls the global narrative. How probably placed in as a nobody to keep the seat warm or a puppet with strings but he cut off those strings and choked (figuratively) the very people who had attached the strings. It also captures the tussles internally and externally with Crimea and Ukraine getting their spotlight. Misha Gelly makes an interesting observation that Putin has found himself trapped inside the Kremlin- ironically almost like a prisoner of power. Handling unbridled power is something that Putin is adept at doing. His training as a KGB agent has stood him in good stead all through the two decades that he has held the office of the President. Another interesting fact is that Putin has been in power far longer than any other contemporary world leader who have all tried their best to dislodge him from his powerful perch. He says he has seen evidence that Russian soldiers have used what are known as "elephant gas masks" to torture civilians across the decades in Chechyna and Ukraine.And the history of where he started is as dramatic as his exploits have been so far. This audible series is not all that detailed, but it gives you a very good introduction of how someone installed as a puppet, can refuse to be one and end up taking the power that was not meant to be his. Some of the anecdotes just show how Putin does indeed live up to the Bond villain persona attributed to him. I think he's a bit of a hero because of that, and I know writing the book was difficult for him," Mr Sweeney said. Loved the narrative - brilliant short episodes and a novice level treatment for world politics. The Ukraine Maidan episode (Green men) and the school shootout episodes were brilliant and you were cheering for him. The use of disinformation to tilt scales and vest power - scary, but true! (You only need to look at Fox news).

Killer in the Kremlin: The instant bestseller - a gripping

The worst part is I don't even know his name. I don't know what unit he was from. All I know is he was a tanker," he said. Singled out by Russian forces

And then the other side of it, that was very heavy on me because I didn't want to say any of this stuff because anyone who's ever followed me for years, they know that I'm extremely pro-Ukrainian and pro-freedom."

Putin: The explosive and extraordinary new biography of Putin: The explosive and extraordinary new biography of

Mr Aslin's captors had a good reason to keep the marine alive. They were about to start using him in propaganda videos. Now freed, working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforced exile, Khodorkovsky brings us the insider's battle to save his country's soul. Offering an urgent analysis of what has gone wrong with Putin, The Russia Conundrum maps the country's rise and fall against Khodorkovsky's own journey, from Soviet youth to international oil executive, powerful insider to political dissident, and now a high-profile voice seeking to reconcile East and West. I relished reading about the Cold War years and the novels set in Big Brother times. This book is as gripping, if not more on one man's political shrewdness. He is the man who made Trump grovel at Helsinki! These people need to be found and sentenced and I think the only way for that to happen is to have something similar to The Hague or some huge war crimes tribunal." In April 2021, Putin changed the law to allow himself to be President until 2036. So, I guess he doesn't plan to be going anywhere. I'm not sure that is a good thing for the world, or for Russians who are in dire straits; suicide is rampant. When some of the hardest people on earth are driven to that, there is something very wrong.I saw the elephant gas mask in Kherson police station. And I know that the elephant gas mask torture was used in Izyum. So, what you have is for 23 years a system of torture on a massive scale." This audiobook can be described as an introduction to the topic , the history and what makes Putin so formidable. The narration and the effects are really nice and creates the sense of anticipation and intrigue about the outcomes. In that way the performance is really nice. Another low point during the Putin years was the crisis in Ukraine where the ruling dispensation was trying to gain admission into the European Union. Putin convinced the Ukrainian Government to remain within the Russian sphere of influence and the uprisings that happened in Kiev were ruthlessly put down. Eventually, Russia invaded Crimea (a part of Ukraine) which was of strategic importance to Russia. This invited the wrath of the western nations in the form of sanctions. From Putin's point of view, he was probably right in his approach to the crisis because the western powers were trying to undermine the strategic interests of the country. I have never quite read about Russian history. It was always a bit of a mystery to me why Russia and US, after fighting on the same side in WW2 proceeded to have this nuclear arms race and cold war with USA. And why is Russia not as developed as US is, and was considered among the developing BRICS economies in 90s and early 2000's. Since then, China has zoomed ahead of course, and while Russia is still considered hugely influential in global politics, they don't have the economic might you might imagine. They took me to Donetsk. There was some guy waiting there. He just continued to beat me with a police baton. And this is where that scar came from," he said pointing at his forehead.