THE FINANICAL TIMES - BEST BOOKS OF 2022

'The prolific military chronicler and analyst Mark Galeotti has produced exactly the right book at the right time.' - The Times

A history of how Putin and his conflicts have inexorably reshaped Russia, including his devastating invasion of Ukraine.

Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself.
But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers. This is an engrossing strategic overview of the Russian military and the successes and failures on the battlefield.

Thanks to Dr Galeotti's wide-ranging contacts throughout Russia, it is also peppered with anecdotes of military life, personal snapshots of conflicts, and an extraordinary collection of first-hand accounts from serving and retired Russian officers. Russia continues to dominate the news cycle throughout the Western world.
There is no better time to understand how and why Putin has involved his armed forces in a variety of conflicts for over two decades.

Mark Galeotti is a scholar of Russian security affairs with a career spanning academia, government service and business, a prolific author and frequent media commentator. He heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy and is an Honorary Professor at University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies as well as holding fellowships with RUSI, the Council on Geostrategy and the Institute of International Relations Prague. He has been Head of History at Keele University, Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a Visiting Professor at Rutgers-Newark, Charles University (Prague) and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He is the author of over 25 books including A Short History of Russia (Penguin, 2021) and The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War (Yale University Press, 2022).

Author's Note
List of Illustrations
List of Maps and Diagrams
Abbreviations
Cast of Characters
Chronology

1. Introduction
PART ONE: BEFORE PUTIN
2. Born in Chaos
3. A Military in Crisis
4. The First Chechen War
5. The Wars of Russian Assertion
PART TWO: ENTER PUTIN
6. Putin's Priorities
7. The Second Chechen War
8. Ivanov, the Initiator
9. Serdyukov, the Enforcer
10. Georgia, 2008 (1): Tbilisi's Move ...
11. Georgia, 2008 (2): ... Moscow's Counter
12. 'New Look' Army
PART THREE: THE NEW COLD WAR
13. Shoigu, the Rebuilder
14. Crimea, 2014
15. Donbas, 2014-
16. Lessons of the Donbas War
17. Syria, 2015- (1): The Unexpected Intervention
18. Syria, 2015- (2): Lessons of the Syrian Campaign
PART FOUR: REARMING RUSSIA
19. Rumble for Ruble
20. Armiya Rossii
21. The Sky is Russia's!
22. Contesting the Sea
23. Power Projection: Blue and Black Berets
24. The Spetsnaz
25. The Nuclear Backstop
PART FIVE: THE FUTURE
26. Political Warfare
27. New Generation Warfare
28. The Challenges of the Future
29. Ukraine 2022: Putin's Last War?
30. Conclusions: The Eurasian Sparta?
Notes
Selected English-language Bibliography
Index