Robert Service and Catherine Belton Chaired by Matthew Stadlen

Biographer and historian Robert Service and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton discuss the rise of Vladimir Putin, how he has dashed hopes for a new Russia, and the stark consequences of his rule for Russians and the rest of the world.

In Kremlin Winter: Russia and the Second Coming of Vladimir Putin Service explains how Vladimir Putin has dominated Russia since Boris Yeltsin relinquished the presidency in his favour in May 2000. Service says Putin’s rule has been marked by an increase in domestic repression and international assertiveness. However, he adds that Russia has also seen signs of liberal growth and its future is far from certain. Service is a leading historian of modern Russia. His books include biographies of Lenin and Stalin and Comrades: A History of World Communism. His Trotsky: A Biography won the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize.

Belton’s Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Turned On the West explains how wealthy ex-KGB men came to dominate Putin’s circle and how Russia came to hack the 2016 elections, sponsor extreme politics in Europe, make war in Ukraine and wage a concerted campaign to undermine the West. She shows how former KGB agents were able to siphon off billions in cash, seize private companies and replace the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era. Belton was a long-serving Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times and has also reported on Russia for Moscow Times and Business Week.

Discussions are chaired by LBC radio host Matthew Stadlen, a former Telegraph interviewer and BBC presenter.