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

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If Sweeney could “doorstep” Johnson and ambush him with an unexpected interview, what would he most like to ask? This is someone who goes where the story is and risks his life. At the same time, it is also a story with only one aim and that is to show Putin to be a monster. There is no balance or subtlety of argument. The closest you get is the distinction between Putin and the Russian people at large, and the latter are not well defined just occasionally sentimentalised.

Dealing with someone as secretive and reviled as Putin, it is tempting for his enemies to believe any speculation suggesting he may be ill. But isn’t there a danger that journalists give too much credence to rumours, yearning for them to be true rather than proving it? 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). UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture. UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community. 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."an Emmy Award and a Royal Television Society prize for programs about the Massacre at Krusha e Madhe, Kosovo. This is as much a personal account by Sweeney of his coverage of Putin's Russia over the years as well as his work as a freelance war correspondent in Ukraine. He makes a compelling case about the nature of Putin and his history. Some of it is speculative but hard to avoid than given how closed a society Russia is and Sweeney makes his case well. 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. The reason Sweeney mentions this now, besides his pride at confronting a dictator, is because of how Putin’s appearance has changed since then. “When I met Putin, he had a face like a weasel, or a space alien, or a snake – his cheeks were thin. Now, he looks like a hamster whose cheeks are stuffed with straw.”

Sweeney outlines briefly Putin's early life - some fascinating suggestions on his treatment as a child - to his KGB career - again suggesting why Putin languished in Russia and Dresden - and then onto his rise through domestic politics to leader of Russia. The last chapter of this book easily merits five stars! However, the rest of the book reads like a gruesome list of murder, mayhem and torture. Sweeney intercuts Putins story with his own experience of the leader of Russia and more importantly the people Putin has affected. Dissidents, residents and citizens of Russia have felt his wrath and sweepy injects these story with the humanity that they should be afforded, recognising their bravery in the face of such a monstrous power. The second Chechen war was different. Putin, he writes, used the series of apartment bombings in Moscow as “a casus belli to prosecute the Second Chechen War in the autumn of 1999″ but he did not need to, as a casus belli already existed. A Saudi jihadist leader known as Khattab, incorrectly described by Sweeney as a “Chechen warlord”, had led an incursion into neighbouring Dagestan, thus breaking the treaty that ended the first conflict. It should also be remembered that the second Chechen war began under Yeltsin’s presidency. Words have power, Putin is afraid of the truth, I have always said that.' ALEXEI NAVALNY, LEADER OF THE RUSSIAN OPPOSITIONThis biography of Putin focuses on the violence he used to claim and maintain power. Author and BBC journalist John Sweeny includes his personal experiences reporting on Russia and with the ongoing war in Ukraine. Yes, Yeltsin had been “stupid and cruel” but not only to the Chechens but also to his own conscript soldiers. Because of this something unprecedented in warfare took place. The mothers of the Russian soldiers went into action. Some of them went straight to Grozny and demanded possession of their captured sons. They were successful with the help of Chechen mothers. The organisation Soldiers’ Mothers set up shop within hailing distance of the Lubyanka headquarters of the KGB’s successors. They successfully encouraged desertion from the army, they gave legal aid to the deserters and if anyone won the first Chechen war it was these brave women. It is natural that decisions about editorial balance can cause tensions between passionate journalists working on high-profile stories. Sarah Rainsford, the BBC correspondent who was banned from Russia last year, recently told i of her own frustrations while covering Moscow. I feel it necessary and proper and right to put that stuff out,” says Sweeney. “It is gross, it is disgusting – that’s a war crime.” Yes, there was brutality in the later stages of the war but it took the form of massive artillery shelling and aerial bombardments.

Sweeney may be correct in suggesting that Putin has been an expert conman and that his victims included former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, UK prime minister Tony Blair and the billionaire oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Despite his extremely unsavoury reputation, Berezovsky was given asylum in London, having become one of Putin’s enemies. The phrase “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” comes to mind. 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. A friend wrote: “Yuri’s condition worsened by the hour. His temperature rose continuously. His mucous membranes were swollen and his kidneys were failing. Then the worst began. His skin began to peel off as though he had suffered severe burns. Even a layman could see what was happening: it was either due to radiation or to some unknown poisons.” The reason Sweeney can say all this now is that he feels “liberated” by the independent work he has done since, especially his Hunting Ghislaine podcast about the Jefferey Epstein scandal, which he is adapting into a book, and now his reporting from Ukraine.John Sweeney is an award-winning journalist and author, currently working as an investigative journalist for the BBC's Panorama series. Before joining the BBC in 2001, Sweeney worked for twelve years at The Observer, where he covered wars and revolutions in more than sixty countries including Romania, Algeria, Iraq, Chechnya, Burundi and Bosnia. He may be quirky and at times controversial, but Sweeney is undeniably brave and has achieved more than most journalists can dream of.