All the Kremlin's Men

Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin

By: Mikhail Zygar

Narrated by: Dan Woren

An extraordinary behind-the-scenes portrait of the court of Vladimir Putin, the oligarchs that surround it, and the many moods of modern Russia that reads like a "real House of Cards"(Lev Lurie).

All the Kremlin's Men is a gripping narrative of an accidental king and a court out of control. Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putin's inner circle, this book presents a radically different view of power and politics in Russia. The image of Putin as a strongman is dissolved. In its place is a weary figurehead buffeted - if not controlled - by the men who at once advise and deceive him. The regional governors and bureaucratic leaders are immovable objects, far more powerful in their fiefdoms than the president himself. So are the gatekeepers - those officials who guard the pathways to power-on whom Putin depends as much as they rely on him. The tenuous edifice is filled with all of the intrigue and plotting of a Medici court, as enemies of the state are invented and wars begun to justify personal gains, internal rivalries, or one faction's biased advantage.

A best seller in Russia, All the Kremlin's Men is a shocking revisionist portrait of the Putin era and a dazzling reconstruction of the machinations of courtiers running riot.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2016 Mikhail Zygar (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Information not easy to get, that's for sure.

An interesting behind the scenes look at many figures past and present who have worked with the current Russian leader, outlining information about them many in the west haven't heard before.

Intriguing insight into Putin

It’s an old story,once someone tastes power then they want more power.This is an excellent narrative,well written and well read.Fully recommended.

Narrator is unfortunate

This is an interesting book, but the narration is a problem. Worren—perhaps forgivably—can’t pronounce Russian words or names. But what I hated was his use of a faux Russian accent unworthy of Ensign Chekhov on Star Trek. Better to just read the book to yourself

Deep insights in the Russian Leadership

Great insights, great stories, great background information. A must read to gain some understanding of the Russia for the last 20 years.

Horrible narration

The narrator uses a fake, stereotyped Russian accent, including when he reads quotes from Russians who speak fluent and unaccented English, and he mispronounces almost every name he comes across. It would be comically bad if it didn’t make it so painful to listen.
Read the book.

Enough with the Russian accents!

This is such an amazing book. But the reader insisted on doing a Russian accent any time a Russian was speaking. It ended up being super distracting.

good book

Interesting book. Great narration but I really wish the narrator did not use the fake Russian accent.

A Thorough and Thought-Provoking Read

Mikhail Zygar does a great job by painstakingly charting Putin’s assent to power, along with a team of his choosing. Along the way, the author goes into great detail by depicting how Putin is what we make him to be - that he is, after all, a reluctant leader, who eventually became indispensable. I might disagree with that view, but I appreciated the author’s thorough writing and learned a lot in the process. The choice of a narrator, however, was not the best - even though I understood the need to differentiate the dialogue of various interlocutors quoted in the book, I’d rather have had someone narrate who is bilingual to not butcher the Slavic names and get the point across without inventing some strange accent to sound like an imagined interlocutor.

Excellently sumarized 15 years of Russian politics and history

Performance: really good, well-versed narrator, using russian accents when quoting.

Story: perhaps slightly biased, but still more or less fair view of events that occurred in Russia between 2000-2015.

Informative

Great book. It brought lots of inside looks at politics in Russia.

A must read if you want more than a western big media outlook on Russia.