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The hacking of the 2016 US elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics in Europe. War in Ukraine. In recent years, Vladimir Putin's Russia has waged a concerted campaign to expand its influence and undermine Western institutions. But how and why did all this come about and who has orchestrated it? In Putin's People, investigative journalist Catherine Belton tells the untold story of the rise to power of Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him. Delving deep into the workings of Putin's Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the free-wheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted their country's economy and legal system and expanded its influence into the West. The result is a chilling and revelatory expose of the KGB's revanche - a story that began long ago in the murk of the Soviet collapse when networks of operatives were able to siphon billions of dollars out of Russia and into the West. After Putin's takeover of the economy, these networks acquired new flows of cash to realize their goals. Ranging from Moscow to London, Switzerland and Brighton Beach, and introducing a colorful cast of characters, Putin's People is the definitive account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.