The Explosive Account of Putin's Reign of Terror, Expanded edition

Killer in the Kremlin

The Explosive Account of Putin's Reign of Terror

'The evil dwarf-president is merely another one of those damn fool misfits like that scrappy little Stalin, or wee little Lenin.'

BORIS NEMTSOV, ASSASSINATED RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER

'No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful people.'

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE

'Putin is the main war criminal of the 21st century.'

IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA, UKRAINE’S PROSECUTOR-GENERAL

'Words have power, Putin is afraid of the truth, I have always said that.'

ALEXEI NAVALNY, LEADER OF THE RUSSIAN OPPOSITION

'A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people's love for liberty. This man cannot remain in power.'

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

'Examines the sins of the Russian leader's regime'

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - NOW UPDATED WITH FOUR NEW CHAPTERS 
 
'This swashbuckling book is a furious attack on the Russian president. Killer in the Kremlin traces Putin's bloody career... a life littered with corpses.' - THE TIMES 
 
A gripping and explosive account of Vladimir Putin's tyranny, charting his rise from spy to tsar, exposing the events that led to his invasion of Ukraine and his assault on Europe. 
 
In Killer in the Kremlin, award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes readers from the heart of Putin's Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine. 
 
In a disturbing exposé of Putin's sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting - from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 - to understand the true extent of Putin's long war. 
 
Drawing on eyewitness accounts and compelling testimony from those who have suffered at Putin's hand, we see the heroism of the Russian opposition, the bravery of the Ukrainian resistance, and the brutality with which the Kremlin responds to such acts of defiance, assassinating or locking away its critics, and stopping at nothing to achieve its imperialist aims. 
 
In the midst of one of the darkest acts of aggression in modern history - Russia's invasion of Ukraine - this book shines a light on Putin's rule and poses urgent questions about how the world must respond. 
 
'An extraordinarily prescient and fascinating book.' - NIHAL ARTHANAYAKE 
 
Instant Sunday Times bestseller, March 2023

North Korea Undercover

A unique and timely account of life in North Korea

Sweeney's book is a spark in the dark of North Korea.

The recent UN report on North Korea under-lined the importance of Sweeney's book. There is much to learn from North Korea Undercover.

Harrowing... creepy and poignant; and, in turn, tragic and obscene. North Korea Undercover asserts that the West should be more concerned about labour camps than nuclear weapons.

Explosive and entertaining... Sweeney provides a remarkably vivid look at this hidden country. An investigative must-read.

A tremendous piece of reporting. This book is one that we should all read and absorb.

This is a chilling book, but a timely one, written with both humour and compassion. Buy it, read it, and discuss it.

Sweeney is a very good and honest journalist - he has an ability that is very rare in TV reporting to emotionally judge the truth of a situation.

North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. It is Orwell’s 1984 made reality. 
 
The regime controls the flow of information to its citizens, pouring relentless propaganda through omnipresent loud speakers. Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty and the slightest sign of discontent. 
 
You must bow to Kim Il Sung, the Eternal Leader and to his son, Generalissimo Kim Jong Il. Worship the dead and then hail the living, the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
North Koreans are told their home is the greatest nation on earth. Big Brother is always watching. 
 
Posing as a university professor, award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney travelled undercover to gain unprecedented access to the world’s most secret state. Drawing on his own experiences and his extensive interviews with defectors and other key witnesses, North Korea Undercover pulls back the curtain, providing a rare insight into life there today, examining the country’s troubled history and addressing important questions about its uncertain future. 
 
Sweeney’s highly engaging, authoritative account illuminates the dark side of the Hermit Kingdom and challenges the West’s perception of this paranoid nationalist state.

Aiden Aslin

John Sweeney

A graphic account of the conditions endured by those who attempt to defy Russian aggression.

Engaging and horrifying in equal measure. A powerful story and insight into modern war.

Horrifying, heart-rending, inspiring. Five stars.

Both a warning and a message of hope. Aslin survived to tell his story - and we should listen.

My Time as a Prisoner of War in Ukraine

Aiden Aslin joined the Ukrainian marines in 2018, compelled to defend his adopted homeland from the growing threat of Russian invasion. In February 2022, as Russia mounted a full-scale offensive, Aiden and his unit were stationed at the frontline at Mariupol. 
 
Pinned down at a Mariupol steelworks, after a month-long siege and running out of supplies, Aiden was part of the mass surrender of over a thousand Ukrainian troops, in April 2022. Then his real ordeal began. 
 
Singled out for his British passport, Aiden was interrogated, tortured, stabbed, turned into a propaganda zombie, tried by a kangaroo court and then sentenced to death. A victim of a catalogue of abuses of international law, Aiden struggled to cling on to any hope of survival. Certain that he was going to be executed, he was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange and permitted to return home. 
 
In Putin's Prisoner, Aiden will tell the full, harrowing story of his time fighting in Putin's war, of his six months in Russian captivity, and of his hardened resolve to defend the freedoms of the people of Ukraine.

John Sweeney

Praise for Putin's Prisoner

A great read. An amazing story.

A graphic account of the conditions endured by those who attempt to defy Russian aggression.

Engaging and horrifying in equal measure. A powerful story and insight into modern war.

A great read. An amazing story.

A graphic account of the conditions endured by those who attempt to defy Russian aggression.

Engaging and horrifying in equal measure. A powerful story and insight into modern war.

A great read. An amazing story.

A graphic account of the conditions endured by those who attempt to defy Russian aggression.

Engaging and horrifying in equal measure. A powerful story and insight into modern war.

Books by John Sweeney

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