Of the many accounts written about the Russian president, Mikhail Zygar’s insider’s guide to his court is one of the most compelling. Zygar, a prominent journalist, has clearly earned the confidence of many ... Yet, while emphasising the court’s dependency on Putin, Zygar’s conclusion is more nuanced. Putin became what he is because those around him saw it as the simplest path for their own enrichment and job security.
... fascinating ... takes us deep into the secret world of the courtiers whose task is to shape Mr. Putin’s access to information so that he makes the 'right' decision ... the book, which reflects the breadth and depth of his sources inside Mr. Putin’s inner circle, was an immediate sensation when it was first published in Russia.
Refreshingly, Mr Zygar chooses to focus not on the president himself, but on the courtiers who have shaped and shepherded him...he pulls back the curtain on several key figures whom Western readers may not know ... The stream of court intrigue gives All the Kremlin’s Men the juicy allure of a Russian thriller. But structuring the book around members of Mr Putin’s entourage leads to some confusing chronological leaps ... More troubling is Mr Zygar’s reliance on hearsay and anonymous sources, a flaw he readily owns up to and tries to parlay into insight.
This approach sheds more light on the inner workings of the Kremlin than many other Putin books ... Zygar is at his best where he describes courtiers’ infighting ... Yet All the Kremlin’s Men fails to crack the question of what — or who — shapes the big direction of Mr Putin’s policies ... his analysis of how the president grew disillusioned with western counterparts such as US president George W Bush lacks a link to the deeply reported main story. Still, the book is a milestone. No other Russian journalist has written a Putin book based on independent reporting and published in Russia.
Written in a rather flat but accessible style, the book is based on the testimony of an impressive selection of key figures in contemporary Russian politics ... Zygar's is a conventional enough account of the past fifteen years of Russia's history, albeit one enlivened by some unusual details ... Given the challenge Zygar presents to the standard image of Putin as puppet master, it's ironic that he should then offer no credible sense of who or what might be pulling the strings instead. This crucial bigger picture is what's missing from Zygar's book.
As a chronicler of the opposition movement that briefly unsettled Putin through the winter of 2011/12, Zygar cannot be considered an impartial observer (though who can in matters concerning Russia these days?). Yet he does manage, through dozens of interviews with members of Putin’s inner circle, to produce a three-dimensional, detached and readable account of the 'man who accidentally became king' and the courtiers who dance around him ... Perhaps most compellingly of all, we learn that Putin is a reluctant tsar who at times has really wanted out, but has been unable to leave office because he knows the system would collapse around him before he could make good his getaway.