Murder in the Gulag, John Sweeney
Murder in the Gulag, John Sweeney
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
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Murder in the Gulag
The explosive account of how Putin poisoned Alexei Navalny

Author: John Sweeney

Narrator: John Sweeney

Unabridged: 10 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Headline Press

Published: 08/01/2024

Synopsis

'Murder in the Gulag is brilliant journalistic writing: punchy, eloquent, page-turning and factual. It's a powerful reminder of what an extraordinary man Navalny was' - Roland Oliphant, Telegraph

The gripping sequel to the bestselling Killer in the Kremlin, revised and updated for paperback publication.

2:19pm, Moscow time, 16 February 2024. The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District announces that Alexei Navalny is dead. The news sends shockwaves around the world.

In Murder in the Gulag, award-winning journalist John Sweeney goes behind the headlines to reveal what really happened to the Russian opposition leader in the freezing Polar Wolf penal colony in a remote part of Siberia. The book is less a whodunnit - Russian President Vladimir Putin's machinery of repression killed Navalny - than a howdunnit.

The narrative relates Navalny's extraordinary life story in technicolour detail, from his childhood summers spent with his grandparents in the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine to his untimely death at the age of 47, cut down in his prime.

This is a warts-and-all portrayal of a highly charismatic but controversial figure who flirted with far-right Russian nationalists before course-correcting, told by an intrepid journalist, based in London and Kyiv, who knew Navalny personally.

Murder in the Gulag contains a warning. Navalny made a fatal misjudgement in returning to Russia after his poisoning by Novichok in 2020, betting that Vladimir Putin wouldn't kill him. But as Putin has gained in strength, with the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the fortunes of war slowly turning in Russia's favour, Navalny lost that bet. Sweeney argues that if the West fails to stand up more forcefully to Putin, we are in danger not just of betraying Ukraine but our own security too.

About John Sweeney

John Sweeney is the Reform UK correspondent of The Nerve. As a reporter, first for the Observer and then for the BBC, he has covered wars in around 100 countries and has been undercover in the danger zones of Chechnya, North Korea and Zimbabwe. The author of 16 books, including the Sunday Times bestseller The Killer in the Kremlin, he has challenged both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin face-to-face.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Alex on March 08, 2025

Fan of Navalny. Not a fan of the author who clearly relishes in delivering what transpires to be a potted history of events that’s he’s so clearly desperate to have been involved in.......more

Goodreads review by Julie on January 17, 2025

Sweeney’s book is interesting on many levels. It’s a rather personal view and magnification of Alexi Navalny’s life and death and a glimpse of Russian politics, in particular Putin’s brutal tactics dealing with opponents perceived as enemies or threats. It details the astonishing wealth and absolute......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on October 30, 2024

Clearly a very personal account of Alexei Navalny by journalist John Sweeney who knew the man and Russia. Sweeney’s passion for justice and disdain for Putin’s Russia are clear. And while that makes the book, the writing style detracted a bit, hence four stars rather than five. Should you read the b......more

Goodreads review by Tom on March 22, 2025

With as probably as much completeness and truth as is possible in the current world, Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny's anti-Putin, anti-oligarch career and demise is recounted. This includes the unfortunate, early far-right flirting he did for apparent coalition......more

Goodreads review by Ruaridh on April 11, 2025

An eye opening experience of a book. I could hardly put it down, John Sweeney does an incredible job of writing in the most engaging way about a story so horrifying. When I started the book I wanted to learn a little more about Alexei Navalny, haven known the relative basics about who he is. I finis......more

Quotes

Murder in the Gulag is brilliant journalistic writing: punchy, eloquent, page-turning and factual. It's a powerful reminder of what an extraordinary man Navalny was. Telegraph

[Sweeney] has done a valuable service with this lively page-turner. He is keeping Navalny's name alive and has shown that, despite all that Putin has done to corrupt society, there is a core of decency in Russia. The Times

[a] forensic and compelling account RTÉ Guide

In a grimly fascinating read, Sweeney provides a crash course in Russia's recent history . . . and provides a genuinely frightening depiction of what it means to challenge the Russian leader's grasp on power. The Irish Times

Passionate . . . Sweeney not only gives a detailed backstory to this flawed hero, but also provides an insight into Putin's fears and the lengths he will go to to silence all opposition: something that too many Western observers are still reluctant to understand. Irish Independent

There is a growing realisation that the West has, yet again, been naively neglectful and that we must do much, much more to secure our world and our children's world too. Sweeney's Murder in the Gulag is a very timely and valuable contribution to that debate and process. Irish Examiner

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