'A brilliant book' Alastair Campbell The Rest is Politics '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 'A brilliant engagingly
written and timely book' Owen Matthews 'A very good book' Mark Galeotti Undeterred by eight
years of timid US sanctions Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on 24
February 2022. In the hours that followed Western leaders weaponized economic tools in a
world-changing financial experiment. The goal was to sap the strength of Putin's war machine by
damaging its economy without risking a global recession in the process. In Punishing Putin
veteran journalist Stephanie Baker uncovers how this furious financial war has unfolded from
seizing superyachts to manipulating the global price of oil to blocking the sale of military
technology. Baker reveals how the West mobilized an army of white-collar-crime investigators to
crack down on illicit Russian money targeting oligarchs and their enablers for sanctions
evasion. 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 economic statecraft and radically
rearranged global alliances influencing world order for generations to come.
