Belton’s book systematically traces Putin’s rise to power, from KGB chief in Dresden to deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to Yeltsin protege to Russian President. But, more importantly, it is the story of how Putin’s cronies—KGB and corrupt oligarchs—have taken over the Russian economy, courts, and government to put the entirely in the service of Putin’s personal aims. Based in many interviews with former Putin intimates, the book traces the step-by-step state takeover of Russian gas and oil, creating a black slush fund at Putin’s disposal and destroying any semblance of independence on the part of Russian’s largest industry *and* any hope of the kind of open society that Gorbachev and Yeltsin aspired to. Gradually, the Russian state was completely aligned with the president’s desire to recreate himself as a tsar and Russia as an empire. The book closes with KGB meddling in the 2016 election and in Trump’s Ukraine policy, not to mention attempting to remake Europe in ways sympathetic to Russia. Belton is never alarmist, but the future she lays out is terrifying.