Russian journalist Roman Badanin, who lives in exile in the United States, warned against underestimating President Vladimir Putin’s capabilities or treating him with ridicule, as a new book examines his political rise, private life and network of associates, drawing on more than two decades of journalistic investigations into Russia.
Badanin’s book documents Putin’s political network
Badanin, the founder of the investigative outlet Proekt, co-authored the book with fellow Russian journalist Mikhail Rubin under the title The Tsar Himself. The work is based on interviews with around 300 people, including individuals who were part of the Russian president’s inner circle, as well as testimonies and information collected by the authors during years of journalistic work.
The book runs to around 800 pages and examines the way power is managed in Russia and Putin’s political trajectory, as well as aspects of his private life. It recently won France’s Strasbourg-Crédit Mutuel Grand Prize, while its French translation was published on 17 September by Lizarine.
Mathilde Romo, the prize’s co-secretary-general, described the book as taking the form of a “spy novel”, praising its authors’ efforts to defend freedom of expression. Badanin and Rubin say their investigation was built on material and testimonies they were able to collect over years of monitoring the Russian president, his inner circle and the country’s security agencies. The two journalists left Russia in 2021 after Federal Security Service officers raided their homes.
Security warning and a professional path in exile
They are currently working on a documentary about the same agency, while Badanin believes that dismantling the Federal Security Service would be a prerequisite for Russia, in his view, to become a democratic state. In an interview conducted on Thursday, Badanin revealed that in autumn 2025 he received a warning from members of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation about the possibility of an attack by a foreign intelligence service against him and his family.
This came as he discussed his investigative work and professional path after leaving Russia and settling in the United States. In his assessment of Putin’s character, Badanin criticised what he sees as a tendency in some Western analyses to underestimate the Russian president’s capabilities.
Badanin urges against underestimating Putin
He called for Putin to be treated as a political actor capable of making difficult decisions and continuing to manage the conflict, saying that Putin is “not stupid” and “not a coward”. The Russian journalist said approaches that treat Putin with ridicule do not, in his view, reflect the nature of the political figure with whom the world must deal.
He also said that the Russian president entered the war in Ukraine seeking a quick victory that would strengthen his position at home and abroad, before the confrontation turned into a long-term war that made retreat more difficult. As the war entered its fifth year, Badanin believes that the course of the fighting has led to a further hardening of the Russian leadership’s position.
He attributes this to Putin’s growing sense that Russia is facing widespread opposition, which, in his reading, makes him less willing to reverse his war-related decisions. Badanin said that in the years before the war, the West, in his view, ignored a series of indicators linked to the way power was managed in Russia, before the war in Ukraine placed these issues on the international agenda.
He added that, more than four years after the outbreak of the war, Putin has become more hardline because he feels that “everyone is against him” and that he “cannot retreat”, amid no indications that the fighting will end soon.
Badanin addressed a message to the next French president, who will succeed Emmanuel Macron after the presidential election scheduled for 2027, saying: “Remember that everything you do with Putin will be used, first and foremost, to strengthen his grip on power in Russia”.
