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The Age of the Strongman: Understanding Putin

Politics &
Economics

How did he come to have such control over Russia – and what is it that he really wants?

This event was part of our Age of the Strongman series. Click here to see the other events in the series.

War in Ukraine. Interference in democratic elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics to destabilise Europe. In recent years, Vladimir Putin has waged a relentless campaign to expand his influence beyond Russia’s borders and to undermine Western democracy. But how did he come to have such control over Russia – and what is it that he really wants?

In March 2025 Catherine Belton, acclaimed journalist and author of the bestselling book Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West joined us live from Kyiv for this installment of our series, The Age of the Strongman. Drawing on years of investigative reporting, Belton revealed how Putin’s rise was orchestrated by a network of former KGB officers and oligarchs who used economic power, fear and corruption to install him in the Kremlin. She explored how this model of governance and ‘strongman leadership’ has been exported globally and what the consequences continue to be for us all. 

The event was chaired by Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times.

Speakers for the motion

  • Catherine Belton (via video link)

    Reporter on Russia for The Washington Post, Author of Putin’s People

Featuring

  • Arkady Ostrovsky

    Author and Russia editor for The Economist

Chair

  • Gideon Rachman

    Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speaker

Catherine Belton (via video link)

Reporter on Russia for The Washington Post, Author of Putin’s People

International Investigative Reporter for The Washington Post, reporting on Russia. She worked from 2007 to 2013 as the Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, and in 2016 as the newspaper’s legal correspondent. She has previously reported on Russia for The Moscow Times and BusinessWeek and served as an investigative correspondent for Reuters. In 2009, she was short-listed for the British Press Awards’ Business and Finance Journalist of the Year prize. Her book Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West was A New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and was named a best book of the year by The Economist, Financial Times, New Statesman and The Telegraph.
Host

Gideon Rachman

Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times

Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times. He joined the FT in 2006, after 15 years at The Economist, where he served as a correspondent in Washington D.C., Brussels, and Bangkok. In 2016, Rachman won the Orwell Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political journalism. He has written a number of books including Zero Sum World, Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline From Obama to Trump and Beyond, and The Age of Strongmen.
Featuring

Arkady Ostrovsky

Author and Russia editor for The Economist

An award-winning author and journalist who leads The Economist’s coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine. He has three decades of experience reporting and analysing domestic and foreign affairs in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. His cover stories and special reports have helped to shape Western policy and thinking about the region. He joined the Economist in 2007 after 10 years with The Financial Times. He holds a doctorate degree from Cambridge University in English Literature. His book The Invention of Russia won the 2016 Orwell Prize.