-
Putin's Kleptocracy
- Who Owns Russia?
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Putin's People
- How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
- By: Catherine Belton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe.
-
-
Ultimate in nonfiction on Putinism.
- By Victoria Eriksson on 08-22-20
By: Catherine Belton
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
The Man Without a Face
- The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to its own people and to the world.
-
-
A Preview of Authoritarianism in the USA
- By Jimmy O on 06-08-19
By: Masha Gessen
-
The New Tsar
- The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
- By: Steven Lee Myers
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president—the only complete biography in English–that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history, by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.
-
-
A retelling of facts without much added info
- By A. M. on 03-07-16
By: Steven Lee Myers
-
Moneyland
- The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World
- By: Oliver Bullough
- Narrated by: Oliver Bullough
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An investigative journalist's deep dive into the corrupt workings of the world's kleptocrats. Learn how the institutions of Europe and the US have become money-laundering operations, attacking the foundations of many of the world's most stable countries. Meet the kleptocrats. Meet their awful children. And find out how heroic activists around the world are fighting back.
-
-
Best book I've read (listened to) this year
- By Linda Copeland on 06-26-19
By: Oliver Bullough
-
Mr. Putin
- Operative in the Kremlin
- By: Fiona Hill, Clifford G. Gaddy
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the KGB to the Kremlin: a multidimensional portrait of the man at war with the West. Where do Vladimir Putin's ideas come from? How does he look at the outside world? What does he want, and how far is he willing to go? The great lesson of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was the danger of misreading the statements, actions, and intentions of the adversary. Today, Vladimir Putin has become the greatest challenge to European security and the global world order in decades.
-
-
Not a good narration.
- By IBH on 07-22-20
By: Fiona Hill, and others
-
Putin's People
- How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
- By: Catherine Belton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe.
-
-
Ultimate in nonfiction on Putinism.
- By Victoria Eriksson on 08-22-20
By: Catherine Belton
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
The Man Without a Face
- The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to its own people and to the world.
-
-
A Preview of Authoritarianism in the USA
- By Jimmy O on 06-08-19
By: Masha Gessen
-
The New Tsar
- The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
- By: Steven Lee Myers
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president—the only complete biography in English–that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history, by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.
-
-
A retelling of facts without much added info
- By A. M. on 03-07-16
By: Steven Lee Myers
-
Moneyland
- The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World
- By: Oliver Bullough
- Narrated by: Oliver Bullough
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An investigative journalist's deep dive into the corrupt workings of the world's kleptocrats. Learn how the institutions of Europe and the US have become money-laundering operations, attacking the foundations of many of the world's most stable countries. Meet the kleptocrats. Meet their awful children. And find out how heroic activists around the world are fighting back.
-
-
Best book I've read (listened to) this year
- By Linda Copeland on 06-26-19
By: Oliver Bullough
-
Mr. Putin
- Operative in the Kremlin
- By: Fiona Hill, Clifford G. Gaddy
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the KGB to the Kremlin: a multidimensional portrait of the man at war with the West. Where do Vladimir Putin's ideas come from? How does he look at the outside world? What does he want, and how far is he willing to go? The great lesson of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was the danger of misreading the statements, actions, and intentions of the adversary. Today, Vladimir Putin has become the greatest challenge to European security and the global world order in decades.
-
-
Not a good narration.
- By IBH on 07-22-20
By: Fiona Hill, and others
-
Freezing Order
- A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
-
-
Red Notice Part II —- The Empire Struck Out
- By R. Alembik on 04-16-22
By: Bill Browder
-
Putin's Wars
- From Chechnya to Ukraine
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers.
-
-
Botched Attempt on Russian Stress
- By Alexey B. on 12-20-22
By: Mark Galeotti
-
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
- The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
- By: Peter Pomerantsev
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Professional killers with the souls of artists, would-be theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, suicidal supermodels, Hell's Angels who hallucinate themselves as holy warriors, and oligarch revolutionaries: welcome to the glittering, surreal heart of 21st-century Russia. It is a world erupting with new money and new power, changing so fast it breaks all sense of reality, home to a form of dictatorship far subtler than 20th century strains, that is rapidly rising to challenge the West.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Elle Kay on 11-25-16
-
Red Notice
- A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Red Notice is a searing expose of the wholesale whitewash by Russian authorities of Magnitsky's imprisonment and murder, slicing deep into the shadowy heart of the Kremlin to uncover its sordid truths.
-
-
This is an absolute "YES" as your next read/listen
- By William on 02-07-15
By: Bill Browder
-
The Future Is History
- How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own - as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.
-
-
The author is an international treasure
- By ThreeGems on 10-16-17
By: Masha Gessen
-
Putin's World
- Russia Against the West and with the Rest
- By: Angela Stent
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Putin's World examines the country's turbulent past, how it has influenced Putin, the Russians' understanding of their position on the global stage and their future ambitions—and their conviction that the West has tried to deny them a seat at the table of great powers since the USSR collapsed.
-
-
More like The West against the world
- By Felis N on 01-18-20
By: Angela Stent
-
Overreach
- The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine
- By: Owen Matthews
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War—and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime—and Russia itself—at risk of destruction. Why? Drawing on over 25 years’ experience working in Moscow, journalist Owen Matthews provides the answer. He takes us inside the COVID bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of nationalist fantasy and bad information.
-
-
Comprehensive Account of the War Through September 2022
- By Jason777 on 12-30-22
By: Owen Matthews
-
The Road to Unfreedom
- Russia, Europe, America
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power. In the last six years, it has creeped from east to west as nationalism inflames Europe, abetted by Russian propaganda and cyberwarfare.
-
-
A Key Understanding of Modern Politics
- By Richard Keohane on 04-08-18
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Kleptopia
- How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World
- By: Tom Burgis
- Narrated by: Tom Burgis
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis weaves together stories that reveal a terrifying global web of corruption. Glimpses of this shadowy world have emerged over the years. In Kleptopia, Burgis connects the dots. He follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, Paris to the White House, the trail shows something even more sinister: the thieves are uniting. And the human cost will be great.
-
-
Lazy Journalism in long narrative form
- By Jeremy on 02-14-21
By: Tom Burgis
-
From Russia with Blood
- The Kremlin's Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin's Secret War on the West
- By: Heidi Blake
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The untold story of how Russia refined the art and science of targeted assassination abroad—while Western spies watched in horror as their governments failed to guard against the threat. Unflinchingly documenting the growing web of death on British and American soil, Heidi Blake bravely exposes the Kremlin's assassination campaign as part of Putin's ruthless pursuit of global dominance—and reveals why Western governments have failed to stop the bloodshed.
-
-
Putin & Polonium; Oligarchs & FSB Assassins; Oh My
- By Michael J Canning on 01-09-20
By: Heidi Blake
-
The Russo-Ukrainian War
- The Return of History
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite repeated warnings from the White House, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. Why did Putin start the war—and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways? Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia grows increasingly isolated. Serhii Plokhy, a leading historian of Ukraine and the Cold War, offers a definitive account of this conflict, its origins, course, and the already apparent and possible future consequences.
-
-
Plokhy delivers as always!
- By Kristinka on 05-20-23
By: Serhii Plokhy
-
Red-Handed
- How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win
- By: Peter Schweizer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Schweizer says that, in a quarter-century as an investigative journalist, this is the scariest investigation he has ever conducted. That the Chinese government seeks to infiltrate American institutions is hardly surprising. What is wholly new, however, are the number of American elites who are eager to help the Chinese dictatorship in its quest for global hegemony.
-
-
A Must Read
- By Issac Singer on 01-25-22
By: Peter Schweizer
Publisher's summary
The raging question in the world today is who is the real Vladimir Putin and what are his intentions. Karen Dawisha’s brilliant Putin’s Kleptocracy provides an answer, describing how Putin got to power, the cabal he brought with him, the billions they have looted, and his plan to restore the Greater Russia.
Russian scholar Dawisha describes and exposes the origins of Putin’s kleptocratic regime. She presents extensive new evidence about the Putin circle’s use of public positions for personal gain even before Putin became president in 2000. She documents the establishment of Bank Rossiya, now sanctioned by the US; the rise of the Ozero cooperative, founded by Putin and others who are now subject to visa bans and asset freezes; the links between Putin, Petromed, and "Putin’s Palace" near Sochi; and the role of security officials from Putin’s KGB days in Leningrad and Dresden, many of whom have maintained their contacts with Russian organized crime.
Putin’s Kleptocracy is the result of years of research into the KGB and the various thriving Russian crime syndicates. Dawisha’s sources include Stasi archives; Russian insiders; investigative journalists in the US, Britain, Germany, Finland, France, and Italy; and Western officials who served in Moscow. Russian journalists wrote part of this story when the Russian media was still free. "Many of them died for this story, and their work has largely been scrubbed from the Internet, and even from Russian libraries," Dawisha says. "But some of that work remains."
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Shadow Party
- How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party
- By: David Horowitz, Richard Poe
- Narrated by: Gregg Rizzo
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is under attack. Its institutions and values are under daily assault. But the principal culprits are not foreign terrorists. They are influential and powerful Americans secretly stirring up disunion and disloyalty in the shifting shadows of the Democratic Party. Radical infiltrators have been quietly transforming America's societal, cultural, and political institutions for more than a generation. Now, backed by George Soros, they are ready to make their move.
-
-
Best introduction to the Democrat party in 2019
- By Larry on 06-12-19
By: David Horowitz, and others
-
The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
-
-
Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
-
Trickle Down Tyranny
- Crushing Obama's Dreams of a Socialist America
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trickle Down Tyranny is the single book you need to stop Obama's emerging dictatorship before we lose all of our constitutional, God-given rights. These pages show you the dangerous laws and powergrabs of the Obama administration… and what we can do to stop this leftist gang from seizing another term in office. Obama is transforming us into a second-class nation, with communists and Islamists given free rein to expand their power.
-
-
Brings Clarity to the Obama charade.
- By Mrs. Stolle on 04-05-12
By: Michael Savage
-
Tower of Basel
- The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World
- By: Adam LeBor
- Narrated by: John Mawson
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tower of Basel is the first investigative history of the world’s most secretive global financial institution. Based on extensive archival research in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States, and in-depth interviews with key decision-makers including Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve; Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England; and former senior Bank for International Settlements managers and officials.
-
-
Such enthralling true information
- By Joe Leiman on 12-24-18
By: Adam LeBor
-
God's Bankers
- A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, this book traces the political intrigue and inner workings of the Catholic Church. Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this audiobook is about the church's accumulation of wealth and its byzantine entanglements with financial markets across the world.
-
-
The book was really good till it wasn't.
- By Dr. JSH on 06-05-16
By: Gerald Posner
-
The Corruption Chronicles
- Obama's Big Secrecy, Big Corruption, and Big Government
- By: Tom Fitton
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judicial Watch, America's largest nonpartisan government watchdog, has investigated the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Judicial Watch is the group that helped impeach Bill Clinton and took the Bush White House secrecy all the way up to the Supreme Court. Since the beginning of the Obama administration, this grassroots group has filed over 700 open records demands and dozens of lawsuits, including a successful fight over the secret Obama White House visitor logs.
-
-
Unbelievable
- By Bill Redfield on 01-30-17
By: Tom Fitton
-
The Shadow Party
- How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party
- By: David Horowitz, Richard Poe
- Narrated by: Gregg Rizzo
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is under attack. Its institutions and values are under daily assault. But the principal culprits are not foreign terrorists. They are influential and powerful Americans secretly stirring up disunion and disloyalty in the shifting shadows of the Democratic Party. Radical infiltrators have been quietly transforming America's societal, cultural, and political institutions for more than a generation. Now, backed by George Soros, they are ready to make their move.
-
-
Best introduction to the Democrat party in 2019
- By Larry on 06-12-19
By: David Horowitz, and others
-
The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
-
-
Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
-
Trickle Down Tyranny
- Crushing Obama's Dreams of a Socialist America
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trickle Down Tyranny is the single book you need to stop Obama's emerging dictatorship before we lose all of our constitutional, God-given rights. These pages show you the dangerous laws and powergrabs of the Obama administration… and what we can do to stop this leftist gang from seizing another term in office. Obama is transforming us into a second-class nation, with communists and Islamists given free rein to expand their power.
-
-
Brings Clarity to the Obama charade.
- By Mrs. Stolle on 04-05-12
By: Michael Savage
-
Tower of Basel
- The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World
- By: Adam LeBor
- Narrated by: John Mawson
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tower of Basel is the first investigative history of the world’s most secretive global financial institution. Based on extensive archival research in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States, and in-depth interviews with key decision-makers including Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve; Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England; and former senior Bank for International Settlements managers and officials.
-
-
Such enthralling true information
- By Joe Leiman on 12-24-18
By: Adam LeBor
-
God's Bankers
- A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, this book traces the political intrigue and inner workings of the Catholic Church. Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this audiobook is about the church's accumulation of wealth and its byzantine entanglements with financial markets across the world.
-
-
The book was really good till it wasn't.
- By Dr. JSH on 06-05-16
By: Gerald Posner
-
The Corruption Chronicles
- Obama's Big Secrecy, Big Corruption, and Big Government
- By: Tom Fitton
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judicial Watch, America's largest nonpartisan government watchdog, has investigated the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Judicial Watch is the group that helped impeach Bill Clinton and took the Bush White House secrecy all the way up to the Supreme Court. Since the beginning of the Obama administration, this grassroots group has filed over 700 open records demands and dozens of lawsuits, including a successful fight over the secret Obama White House visitor logs.
-
-
Unbelievable
- By Bill Redfield on 01-30-17
By: Tom Fitton
-
The Profiteers
- Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World
- By: Sally Denton
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. "Dad" Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to build the world, from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe to mining and energy operations around the globe.
-
-
Your Liberal Bias is showing
- By Anonymous User on 03-29-18
By: Sally Denton
-
Killing the Deep State
- The Fight to Save President Trump
- By: Jerome R. Corsi PhD
- Narrated by: Dan Crue
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Well-funded hard-left extremists, the mainstream media, Obama/Clinton holdovers in the government bureaucracy, and clandestine forces within the US intelligence apparatus have a strategy to ensure that Trump will not serve out his term as the 45th President of the United States. Investigative journalist and conspiracy expert Jerome Corsi goes into shocking detail about how this Deep State, or Shadow Government, secretly wields power in Washington and why it is dangerous.
-
-
Banning the Bestseller: Amazon's Childish Decision
- By JONATHAN KIMBRIEL on 04-05-18
-
The New Tsar
- The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
- By: Steven Lee Myers
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president—the only complete biography in English–that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history, by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.
-
-
A retelling of facts without much added info
- By A. M. on 03-07-16
By: Steven Lee Myers
-
Family of Secrets
- The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America
- By: Russ Baker
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 24 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre said that "words are loaded pistols". In the hands of Russ Baker, they are hydrogen bombs. On each and every page of his masterpiece, Family of Secrets, he explodes the myths and lies that powerful forces have perpetrated on the American consciousness. He digs beneath the surface in a form of journalistic archeology to reveal the hidden history of one of America's most powerful families, leaving no stone unturned.
-
-
Still Relevant, Impossible to Put Down
- By Emilio Largo on 12-14-12
By: Russ Baker
-
All the Kremlin's Men
- Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin
- By: Mikhail Zygar
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Enough with the Russian accents!
- By Emma Jane Top on 12-17-17
By: Mikhail Zygar
-
The Deep State
- The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
- By: Mike Lofgren
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mike Lofgren is back with a book perfectly pitched for the frenzied circus of the primaries. His argument this time is that for all of the backstabbing and money grubbing of the campaign season, the politicians we elect have as little ability to shift policy as Communist party apparatchiks. Welcome to Mike Lofgren's Washington, DC - a This Town where the political theater that is endlessly tweeted and blogged about has nothing to do with actual decision making.
-
-
Almost good, but profoundly misunderstands economics and very biased towards Democrats
- By Nina Prevot on 04-08-16
By: Mike Lofgren
-
The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep
- Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin
- By: David Satter
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book Satter tells the story of the apartment bombings and how Boris Yeltsin presided over the criminalization of Russia, why Vladimir Putin was chosen as his sucessor, and how Putin has suppressed all opposition while retaining the appearance of a pluralist state. As the threat represented by Russia becomes increasingly clear, Satter's description of where Russia is and how it got there will be of vital interest to anyone concerned about the dangers facing the world today.
-
-
David understands Russia better than Russians do
- By Grigory on 04-05-17
By: David Satter
-
Private Empire
- ExxonMobil and American Power
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.
-
-
Please no more accents!
- By Zak on 07-24-12
By: Steve Coll
-
The New Nobility
- The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogin
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While Vladimir Putin has been president and prime minister of Russia, the Kremlin has deployed the security services to intimidate the political opposition, reassert the power of the state, and carry out assassinations overseas. At the same time, its agents and spies were put beyond public accountability and blessed with the prestige, benefits, and legitimacy lost since the Soviet collapse.
-
-
A little difficult to follow
- By Jairus on 12-10-10
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others
-
Collusion
- Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Russia expert Luke Harding lays out the most in-depth look to date at the Trump campaign's dealings with Russia. Beginning with a meeting with Christopher Steele, the man behind the shattering dossier that first brought the allegations to light, Harding probes the histories of key Russian and American players with striking clarity and insight. Harding exposes the disquieting details of the Trump-Russia story - a saga so huge it involves international espionage, offshore banks, sketchy real estate deals, mobsters, money laundering, disappeared dissidents, and more.
-
-
Good summation, but gaps, patched with spin
- By Philo on 11-24-17
By: Luke Harding
-
Hitler's American Friends
- The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States
- By: Bradley W. Hart
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart, is an audiobook examining the strange terrain of Nazi sympathizers, nonintervention campaigners, and other voices in America who advocated on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II. Americans who remember World War II reminisce about how it brought the country together. The less-popular truth behind this warm nostalgia: Until the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was deeply, dangerously divided.
-
-
Excellent Information
- By Laura on 05-09-19
By: Bradley W. Hart
-
The Looting Machine
- Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth
- By: Tom Burgis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals, and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China, and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 percent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 percent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent.
-
-
Frightening, Fascinating, Fatiguing
- By Scott on 07-29-18
By: Tom Burgis
What listeners say about Putin's Kleptocracy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 11-09-14
Who owns Russia
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, few Americans understand what Putin is.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The revelation of Putin's pervicacious thievery.
What does Robert Petkoff bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I would not have time to read the book.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Description of Putin's maneuvering in 1998-9 for the highest office.
Any additional comments?
Russia may never recover from kleptocracy.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steven Schuster
- 11-23-14
A Cautionary Tale, to how Democracy Gets Hijacked
Most Americans suspect that Putin is a thug. Troops with unmarked uniforms, face masks, and Russian accents, that populate break away Ukrainian territories are displayed on the nightly news. But like an iceberg, the majority of Putin's deviousness remains hidden from popular view, that was until this book. Whether Putin was an accidental prime ministerial candidate pushed forward by the oligarchs desperate to replace an ailing Yeltsin, or part of a deliberate plot by KGB and organized crime as advocated in this book, remains speculative. What is clear is that Putin, a man of mediocre abilities, reactionary tendencies, a crook, and probably a murderer, (can you say plutonium poisoning kiddies) now has a stranglehold on Russia. Now, the Russian mass media is merely a propaganda arm for Putin spinning the virile, shirtless myth, that some people are stupid enough to believe, and creating two star Audible reviews, to what is a well written book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vladimir Kushnir
- 01-31-15
Excellent book! Well researched and well written.
Where does Putin's Kleptocracy rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is the best book I've read/listened to on the subject. Another one I would recommend is "The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin" by Masha Gessen. Even though I've tried to keep with the subject by following the news and reading the books, I've found a lot of new material in this book. Some books filled with facts become hard to follow. This one is filled with facts but it is extremely well written, you listen to the story as if it was a Count of Monte Kristo, except that it is the real thing. This should be a must-read for members of Congress and U.S. Presidents as well as European politicians so that they would not "look into Putin's eyes and see his soul" or something like this, but instead would have a clear understanding what they are dealing with.
Any additional comments?
The artist reading the book -- Robert Petkoff -- is doing a pretty good job, even pronunciation of Russian terms and names is better than average in other audiobooks.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Hatfield
- 07-08-15
Sad but well done!
Amazingly similar to the oligarchs in many countries!
One can judge the efficacy of a political system by the condition of the least among us. Oligarchs in the USA are the same as in Russia only the common folks still have it better here but the oligarchs are gaining day by day and have more control of the political system. Elections are rigged by big money and this toxic suasion is getting worse. The false flags in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were even many times worse than Dagestan and Chechnya. Read the book to understand our own country and political system. Putin is the same vintage of psychopath that we have running this country and in fact is following much of our play book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- awesome game
- 02-27-15
Research for this book is extensive
unveils the vail on the late decline of Russia, and how things have gone till and likely will. civil war might arise yet again in Russia
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kyle
- 01-09-15
Incredible depth. Compelling if complex
Tremendous deep dive into the organized chaos of the modern Russian state. Shocking reveal of the inner workings of the Putin presidency and his rise to power. Moves beyond anecdotal accounts to find the real evidence for this stolen power. It can be difficult to stay with the author in this format, considering the complexity of story lines, but the macro explanations give a context to the Russian position that is missing from headlines. After reading, my deepest sympathies are with the Russian people, their stolen rights, and their stolen presidency.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Scott Edward Cunningham
- 11-18-16
Much too dense for audio
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Round off almost all of the numbers, there is no need to know the balance of every bank account to the last ruble to understand the story.
What could Karen Dawisha have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Follow a single narrative to it's conclusion before jumping to the next topic. This book is presented chronologically which means the author touches on people for a scant second before listing several others involved and detailing every action at that point. It's near impossible to follow unless you know quite a bit about this topic already.
What character would you cut from Putin's Kleptocracy?
75% of those mentioned for less than a paragraph.
Any additional comments?
This is like reading a chronological accounting of every step of Putin's rise to power. People are introduced for two lines and then not mentioned for a hundred pages or disappear altogether. Unless you have an eidetic memory or prior knowledge of modern Russian history you will have very little chance of following the story with anything other than an overview. This might be a 4-5 star review for Russian historians or deep political researchers, but as an Audio book, it's much too much detail.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris
- 02-25-15
Read it for the document not the story
A vital document but not as captivating a story as I had hoped. I felt the writer was getting this down for the record - all power to her for that. But I was wanting more of a narrative than is found in here.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James A. Bretney
- 05-31-15
very, very informative
This book scandalized me about how much I didn't know about Russia and Putin. Superb!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. Yates
- 07-29-17
In depth study of confusing economic corruption
Any additional comments?
Detailed and engaging expose of how modern Russia and its economy came under the kleptocracic control of Vladimir Putin. Dawisha goes back to the days before the fall of the Soviet Union, and chronicles (with extensive sources) how various KGB members and other Soviet operatives funneled money out of the country in advance of the Soviet breakup. In addition to financial research, she takes the time to explain how in the wake of the Soviet collapse, the struggle for power and for a course forward (democracy, autocracy, something else?), and Putin's eventual elevation to the presidency and subsequent consolidation of power. Dawisha then follows the multiple aspects of corruption, coercion, and threats that Putin brought to bear over the course of his rise, with the closest attention paid to how Putin amassed economic control. To tell this story, we are also introduced to election shenanigans, press suppression, and political maneuverings. The story is convoluted but strongly sourced, showing the byzantine connections between Putin and the major businesses in Russia. A must read for those who want to understand Putin's economic power.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful