The West has nurtured illusions about Putin for a long time. Ignoring the multiple alarming signs that the Russian regime was already showing from its very beginnings, it chose to see him as a "pragmatic" leader, whose main pursuit was wealth—both personal and for his close circle.

What it failed to understand is that Putin perceives money primarily as a key tool for acquiring power, as it allows for the buying of people and the purchase of weapons. Putin's Russia followed the same trajectory both internally and in foreign policy.

Once the Russian President feels he is in a position of strength, he sets aside bribery and efforts to win over opponents, though he does not completely abandon them, and instead turns more towards intimidation and terrorism as means of exercising politics: poisoning dissidents, attacking neighboring countries, threatening nuclear strikes against European nations when they do not submit to Moscow's will.

Putinism constitutes an unprecedented historical phenomenon, a nihilistic regime obsessed with the pursuit of power, which is driven to wrongdoing without any rational motive, primarily at the expense of Russia itself. This book is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the deeper motives behind the Kremlin's politics.