He was known as the Wizard of the Kremlin. The enigmatic Vadim Baranov was a TV producer beforebecoming political advisor to Putin. After he resigns from this position, legends about himmultiply, without anyone being able to distinguish truth from fiction. Until one night, he tellshis story to the narrator of this book...


Welcome to the heart of Russian power, where sycophants and oligarchs have been engaging in openwarfare, and where Vadim, now the regime's main spin doctor, turns an entire country into anavant-garde political stage. Yet Vadim is not as ambitious as the others. Entangled in theincreasingly dark secret workings of the regime he has contributed to build, he will do anything toget out, guided by the memory of his grandfather, an eccentric aristocrat who survived theRevolution, and the mesmerizing, merciless Ksenia, whom he has fallen in love with.


From the war in Chechnya to the invasion of Ukraine, The Wizard of the Kremlin is a great novel oncontemporary Russia, and a sobering meditation on power, which takes the readerbehind the scenes of the Putin era.

Translated by: Willard Wood