The Russia Conundrum

How the West Fell for Putin's Power Gambit—and How to Fix It

By: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Martin Sixsmith - contributor

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

An urgent analysis of the battle between Russia and the West and an exposé of Putin’s Russia, by a former Kremlin insider.

"I'm a fairly calm fellow; I don't usually get wound up about things. But I was, let's say, concerned when I tuned into the Moscow Echo radio station and heard that the Kremlin had put a price on my head. The announcement didn't quite say 'dead or alive'. But it came close..."—Mikhail Khodorkovsky, March 2021

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has seen behind the mask of Vladimir Putin. Once an oil tycoon and the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out against the corruption of Putin's regime—and was punished by the Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth and jailed for over ten years.

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.

With unparalleled insight, written with Sunday Times bestselling author Martin Sixsmith, The Russia Conundrum exposes the desires and damning truths of Putin's "mafia clan," and provides an answer to the West on how it must challenge the Kremlin—in order to pave the way for a better future.

©2022 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Martin Sixsmith (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Just one mistake…

I think this was very good. It was very helpful to my understanding. However I think the author made a mistake in obviously and repeatedly taking
a side against Trump, MAGA, and the deep state in the US. It’s not that I disagree with the author, but those folks need to read the book, and the negative comments about those things will probably cause many to stop reading or never start at all if they hear about them. Just wasn’t necessary in my opinion.

Excellent read. Place in history

Being informed with such vital information as this project offers, so enlightening and important for humanity in our time, literally allows a lone even unknown, Individual to know his or her own place in history thereby inspired to want to make a difference even in whatever small manner, and making anyone’s life that much more relevant.

Wonderful book by a man with first hand knowledge

well written, well narrated tale of Khodorkovdky's ordeal and politics. It's short on details of his trial but is full of personal observances of the history and characters who've made the current Russian regime.

Required reading

Required reading for today’s tipping-point situation re Russian imperialism and totalitarianism and what might be done about it.

This should be required reading!

This might be the only book you’ll ever need to read to understand the modern day Russia and the world politics between the West and East since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Written with incredible clarity and precision, based on hard facts, this is a powerful, at times heart wrenching insight into Putin’s regime, how it originated, its current state, and where it’s possibly headed.
As someone who was born in Soviet Armenia during the Gorbachev era, and a daughter of a lawyer and political activist, this book hit home with a force that I find hard to describe. During the 9+ hours of listening to this expertly narrated audio version, I had to stop multiple times to contain the emotional turmoil: the outbursts of shock, anger and tears this book provoked in my immigrant’s soul. I grew up in a Russian speaking family, albeit ethnically Armenian, and always considered Russia as my spiritual homeland. In my 37 years of life, I was forced to lose 2 homelands, when I found myself unable to live in the regimes that my countries were under and took the decision to move to the United States. And while the US is my home, Russia and Armenia are my countries, and I’ve spent years trying to understand what went wrong there and what the future has in hold for those countries. Let me tell you, there’s almost no pain comparable to that of losing a country, and living, but mostly existing while grieving for this loss. And while this book couldn’t make up for the loss, it helped shed light on what happened and brought much needed clarity to my understanding of the current political situation that my two homelands have found themselves in.
I thank Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his co-author for this tour de force and truly hope their work reaches a wider audience. I firmly believe that every educated individual should read this book and will only benefit from doing so. I also hope and pray that the author and his family will continue to be safe and protected from the vengeful Kremlin’s wrath…

Well done

Excellent both in content and presentation. Very timely, insightful,but sad yet hopeful as well.