The Strongman
Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia
Shortlisted for International Affairs Book of the Year, Political Book Awards 2012
FROM THE COVER OF THE NEW UPDATED THIRD EDITION, OCTOBER 2021:
Vladimir Putin has turned Russia from fledgling democracy into a police state, and in 2020 a constitutional change gave him the means to stay in power until 2036. In this acclaimed political biography, former BBC Moscow correspondent Angus Roxburgh charts the dramatic fight for Russia’s future under Putin. Roxburgh shows how the former KGB man evolved from reformer to autocrat, how he sought the West’s respect but earned its fear and contempt.
Drawing on dozens of exclusive interviews in Russia, where he worked for a time as a Kremlin insider advising Putin on press relations, as well as in the US and Europe, Roxburgh also argues that the West threw away chances to bring Russia in from the cold, by failing to understand its fears and aspirations following the collapse of communism. This updated edition includes new chapters on Putin and Donald Trump, on Russia’s wars in Ukraine and Syria, and on Putin’s ruthless attempt to rout all political opposition.
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Moscow Calling
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Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent
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In Moscow Calling, published in 2018, Angus Roxburgh recalls four decades of Soviet and Russian life, which he witnessed while living there first as a translator, and then as a correspondent for The Sunday Times and the BBC.
This is not the Russia of news reports, but a quirky, crazy, exasperating, beautiful, tumultuous world that in forty years has changed completely, and yet not at all.
From the dark, fearful days of communism and his adventures reporting the Soviet Union's collapse into chaos, to his frustrating work as an outside media consultant to Putin’s Kremlin, Roxburgh has a unique take on Russian history, culture, high politics and everyday life.
Preachers of Hate
The Rise of the Far Right
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PUBLISHED 2002
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A study of the rise of populism and nationalism in Europe, looking in turn at the various countries where far-right parties have become major political forces. What accounts for their rise, and what can be done about it?
"Roxburgh's book concisely sets out the scale of the challenge facing progressive politics, a challenge that our generation cannot shirk." - David Lammy, The Guardian
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The Second Russian Revolution
The Struggle for Power in the Kremlin
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PUBLISHED 1991
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The story of perestroika and the end of communism, based on extensive interviews with Kremlin insiders.
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Pravda
Inside the Soviet News Machine
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PUBLISHED 1987
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The chief propaganda voice of the Soviet Communist Party - its history, its editorial process and policies, censorship, its readers and contributors, its circulation, style, language - and how it responded to Gorbachev's calls for openness.
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