Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia

An in-depth, authoritative, and timely look at the unprecedented economic war the US and its European allies are waging against Russia after Putin's invasion of Ukraine--written by a veteran journalist with unparalleled access to Western and Russian sources.

Undeterred by eight years of timid US sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In the hours that followed across the world, Western leaders weaponized economic tools to counter an unprecedented land grab by a nuclear-armed power. What followed was an undeniably world-changing financial experiment that risked throwing the world into a devastating recession. The end goal was simple: to sap the strength of Putin's war machine and damage the Russian economy--once the eleventh largest on the planet. Here, Russian expert and veteran journalist Stephanie Baker explains in fascinating detail how this furious shadow-war unfolded: its causes, how it is being executed, and its ability to affect Russia and the course of history.

From seizing superyachts to manipulating the global price of oil to trying to block the sale of military technology to Russia, we learn how the White House coordinated with top officials in London and Brussels to freeze a staggering $300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated in the West by Russia's central bank. Mobilizing an army of white collar-crime investigators and experts on international law, Baker explores how the West has cracked down on illicit Russian money by targeting oligarchs, one superyacht at a time, and their enablers around the world.

Filled with propulsive, fly-on-the-wall details, Punishing Putin takes us into the frantic backroom deliberations that led to a whole new era of carefully calculated "economic statecraft" and shows how these new strategies are already radically rearranging global alliances that will influence the world order today, and for generations to come.

Author: Stephanie Baker
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 09/10/2024
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.36lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9781668050583

About the Author
Stephanie Baker is an award-winning investigative reporter at Bloomberg News. She began her reporting career in Moscow during the 1990s, an unpredictable period of social optimism, economic opportunism, and total chaos that cast the future of Russia in the wake of the Cold War. She received her master's at the London School of Economics and her work has been recognized by the Gerald Loeb Awards, the Overseas Press Club, the UK Society of Editors, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, and the UK's Foreign Press Association. She is a fixture across all Bloomberg media, including Bloomberg television, radio, and podcasts, and she has appeared on NPR, PBS, and the BBC.