Killer in the Kremlin: The instant bestseller - a gripping and explosive account of Vladimir Putin's tyranny

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John Sweeney is an award-winning journalist and author, who brings a novel to the layman that truly confirms the Russian powers mindset - "Oderint dum metuant. Let them hate so long as they fear." Sweeney himself comes across as a mix of Humphrey Bogart and Hunter S. His fearlessness to put himself into the sights of powerful establishment figures and ask the important questions like "Why did Russian anti-aircraft guns shoot down an air Malaysia flight?" To Putin is astounding. In Killer in the Kremlin , award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes readers from the heart of Putin's Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine.

I share many of the author’s views on the current Kremlin regime, especially that the invasion of Ukraine was not only morally indefensible but was also a serious military mistake. There is one section of the book, however, that I found to be infuriatingly selective with the truth. It is anyone’s guess as to where this war will take Putin and Russia, let alone Zelensky and Ukraine. One thing is certain, many more Ukraine and Russian soldiers, and sadly many more Ukraine citizens will die and the Ukraine cities, countryside and economy will be scared for generations.

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I am a student of the causes of WW1. One thing I am certain of is that if the Kaiser, the Emperor, the Tsar and the Caliphate knew where they would be five years hence from 2014, they would have done their utmost to have stopped that war from starting. I wonder if Putin will be in a similar situation. Once you start a war you never know where it will take you.

Though the book can at times feel too personal and he does portray himself as a lad journalist against the world (this was in no part helped by the books narrator who injected the reading with the bravado of a nuts magazine editor).Afraid this is just poor. The book starts out with some passionate, melodramatic self-aggrandising about Sweeney's adventures in Ukraine, which could have been interesting if spun out into an examination of the present, Russia's crimes and the impact he's observed in Ukrainian society. Instead, the bulk of the book is focused on paraphrasing the works of other, better books with the addition of being written by a somewhat manic Steve Zissou figure. He's obviously been reading Masha Gessen, heavily - no bad thing because her books are great - but if you want a book examining Putin and taking guesses as to what's wrong with him then read The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, which is truly excellent. Heavily engaging and informative, sweeneys personal recount of the tsar of is gripping. Following Putins rise to power as a low ranking KGB officer to Yeltsins successor,

In a disturbing expose of Putin's sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting - from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 - to understand the true extent of Putin's long war. In Killer in the Kremlin, award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes readers from the heart of Putin's Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine. Shchekochikhin’s girlfriend Alyona Gromova recalled: “On the day he was taken to hospital, he felt very weak. After he had a shower, his hair was a mess. I went to stroke it and great handfuls of hair came out in my hand. The symptoms were confusing. First, it seemed like a cold but his face was very red, as if he had sunburn, then lumps of his skin started to flake off.” This book delves into Putin’s soul, it questions his birthright and sexual preferences, it looks at his close links with organised crime and how he has become so wealthy, it delves into his relationships with corrupt business leaders and politicians including ex-Presidents and how he has manipulated the Russian economy for his own benefit. It gives many detailed examples of his vindictive and controlling methods and how any criticism has put people’s live at risk. From this book it is impossible to estimate how many lost lives Putin has been responsible for, but the lists of those who were once close and have died in mysterious circumstances is extraordinary. John Sweeney’s book is not a disinterested biography of Vladimir Putin, the eponymous “Killer in the Kremlin”. It is, instead, a polemic relating not only to Russia’s president but to many other aspects of the politics of Russia and Ukraine. At its best it points to some of Putin’s most execrable traits and at its worst elevates the author to the position of the book’s leading character.This brings us to another Russian whose career was brought to a premature end. Boris Nemtsov was shot dead late at night while walking near the Kremlin. His death made a striking impression on Sweeney: “Nemtsov was an extraordinary man, the sweetest, funniest and most human Russian I’ve ever met. His brutal snuffing out caused me to sink into a profound depression.” The book is infused with anecdotes of Sweeney's own, which add a lot of kudos to the conclusions he draws. It also starts and finishes in Ukraine, where Sweeney based himself for 3 months of the start of the War, with the observations from that time well presented and documented. Sweeney, a much travelled, prolific and award winning journalist, lays out, in entertaining and informative detail, just what’s going on in the Kremlin, and it isn’t pretty. By the time I get to the Post Office building a great curl of sound walls up in front of me like a monster wave at sea. It’s the air-raid siren, going off big time, warning of incoming Russian artillery or mission fire. The noise is obscene.

In a disturbing exposé of Putin's sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting - from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 - to understand the true extent of Putin's long war. In his book Sweeney moves methodically through the violence in Russian recent history where he sees Putin’s prints on them all. He gives oxygen to multiple conspiracies about Putin’s wealth, mental state, personal health and sexual interests. the Amnesty International prize for "Victims of the Torture Train," about human rights abuses in Chechnya.Mr. Sweeney doesn’t spell this out quite as clearly as would have been desirable, but his account of many of the key events in Russia since 1991 is invaluable, enabling readers to see the wood as well as many of the trees.The story-line is, of course, selective, and he doesn’t explicitly say that the coup and counter-coup in Moscow in August 1991 were planned mainly by different factions in the KGB.Indeed, this interpretation may in due course be questioned or even refuted as at best an oversimplification. an Emmy Award and a Royal Television Society prize for programs about the Massacre at Krusha e Madhe, Kosovo.