Punishing Putin

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

Undeterred by eight years of timid U.S. sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In the hours that followed, Western leaders weaponized economic tools to counter an unprecedented land grab by a nuclear-armed power. What unfolded was an undeniably world-changing financial experiment that risked throwing the globe 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, 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.

Punishing Putin reveals how Washington, Brussels and London moved to seize superyachts, attempted to manipulate the global price of oil, and tried to block the sale of technology to Russia’s military. As the cost of the war mounted, a separate battle ensued: whether to confiscate the staggering $300 billion in Russia’s foreign currency reserves accumulated in the West in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Mobilizing an army of white-collar crime investigators and experts on international law, Baker explores how the West has finally begun cracking 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 radically rearranging global alliances that will influence the world order today and for generations to come.

Endorsements

  • "Deeply reported and deftly written, Punishing Putin brings you inside a critical front in the new cold war, the one that will decide how long Russia can sustain its confrontation with the West. No one writing about sanctions today has a stronger grasp of this terrain than Stephanie Baker or a better knack for untangling its complexity.

    SIMON SHUSTER, New York Times bestselling author of The Showman: Inside the Invasion that Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky

  • "The riveting inside story of the unprecedented economic war to take down Putin and save Ukraine. Anyone wishing to understand the complexity and difficulty of battling Putin on the global economic stage will find Stephanie Baker’s exposé an essential read.

    BILL BROWDER, New York Times bestselling author of Red Notice and Freezing Order

  • "A captivating economic detective story that describes in great detail how the West tried to confront Putin and explains why the sanctions didn’t work, the war didn’t stop, and the Russian army continues to advance. A very important book for anyone pondering what will happen next.

    MIKAIL ZYGAR, author of War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

  • "An authoritative and gripping investigation that reads like a detective novel. I found myself reading it in the elevator.

    NASSIM TALEB, author of The Black Swan

  • Punishing Putin is a compelling account of the West’s economic war against Russia, from oligarchs’ superyachts to the world’s oil market. . . . Essential reading for under-standing Russia’s war and how it is remaking the world economy.

    CHRIS MILLER, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War

  • "Few reporters understand post-Soviet Russia the way Stephanie Baker does, and itshows. She has produced a definitive account of the war behind the war—the desperatestruggle to restrain Russia’s violence through economic sanctions.

    PETER S. CANELLOS, author of The Great Dissenter

  • "The essential, must-read insider account of the West’s cat and mouse economic warfare against Russia and how it is changing the face of global trade. Magisterial and gripping.

    CATHERINE BELTON, author of Putin’s People