• All the Kremlin's Men

  • Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin
  • By: Mikhail Zygar
  • Narrated by: Dan Woren
  • Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (151 ratings)

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All the Kremlin's Men  By  cover art

All the Kremlin's Men

By: Mikhail Zygar
Narrated by: Dan Woren
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Editorial reviews

"I read this book in one night.... It leaves a profoundly scary impression: [Putin's court is the] real House of Cards." (Lev Lurie, writer and historian)

Publisher's summary

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
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about All the Kremlin's Men

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    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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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.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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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.

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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.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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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.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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good book

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

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    4 out of 5 stars
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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.

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Pass the weak sauce

I expected a truthful hard-hitting expose and I got a cold hot dog with relish instead. It's hard to believe that anyone worth their weight as a journalist would write such a bland limp-wristed portrait of the world's most corrupt and criminal leader. Oh, I forgot, he still lives in Russia.

An Anna Politkovskaya he is NOT. I suggest reading something a little less whitewashy like Karen Dawisha, Masha Gessen, or Bill Browder. Anyone who reads this will know less than when they started...

Good narration, though.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Want to get to know of the inner workings of Kremlin?

Super interesting story of how Putin get to power in the late 1990’s, and how Putin gordana from being quiet pro-West to recent the Americans and the western politicians. The story is exiting as a Russian “House of Cards”. The topic and the book deserves it own TV-series. I think many Europeans could learn a lot about Russian and European politics from this highly relevant deep dive into the inner workings of Russian politics.

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