Andrew Vaganov Publishing

Putin’s Bloody Legacy: How One Man’s Crimes Against Ukraine, Russia, and Humanity Shaped the 21st Century is a powerful indictment of Vladimir Putin and the regime he built. More than a biography, it is a record of corruption, assassinations, and war crimes that transformed Russia into a mafia state and destabilized the world.

From his obscure beginnings in the KGB to his rise through the chaos of St. Petersburg politics, Putin learned how to turn secrecy, loyalty, and violence into tools of power. Once in Moscow, he consolidated control through fear and opportunism, silencing critics and rewarding allies. The book traces this transformation step by step: the suspicious 1999 apartment bombings that cleared his path to the presidency, the atrocities of the Chechen wars, and the national tragedies of the Kursk submarine, Dubrovka theater, and Beslan school massacre.

It examines the political murders that defined Putin’s rule, including the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the shooting of Boris Nemtsov near the Kremlin, and the imprisonment and death of Alexei Navalny. It explores Russia’s invasions of Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas, and the downing of flight MH17. It documents war crimes in Syria, Africa, and Ukraine, culminating in the full-scale invasion of 2022 - with the massacres in Bucha and Mariupol, the bombing of civilians, and the deportation of children that led to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin.

This book is also about those who resisted him: journalists, lawyers, dissidents, and ordinary citizens who refused to be silenced. Their courage forms the moral counterweight to the cruelty of the regime.

Clear, fact-based, and urgent, Putin’s Bloody Legacy is a history of crimes that shaped the 21st century - and a warning about the cost of silence and appeasement.