Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos Audiobook

The astonishing inside story of the Wagner Group, the world’s deadliest militia

“Putin’s Sledgehammer provides an in-depth account of, and essential political and economic background to, the story of Prigozhin’s meteoric rise and abrupt demise.” ―Times Literary Supplement

A Washington Independent Review of Books Best Book of the Year

In June 2023, the Wagner Group assembled an armed convoy that included tanks and rocket launchers and set out on what seemed like a journey to take control of Moscow. The last person to attempt such a venture was Adolf Hitler.

Wagner’s power began from patronage, then grew from international theft and extortion, until it was so great it exposed the weakness of Russia’s conventional military and became a threat to the Russian state, one that was not demonstrably eliminated until a private jet containing Wagner’s core commanders was blown up in midair.

That Yevgeny Prigozhin, a local criminal thug, was able to build a private army that was on the threshold of overwhelming the world’s second largest country seems incredible. In fact, it was inevitable following the hollowing out of the Russian military, the creeping use of contract groups for murky foreign missions, power struggles inside the Kremlin, and the ability of the new militias to corner and exploit the black economy.

Told with unique inside sourcing and expertise, Putin’s Sledgehammer is a gripping and terrifying account of a superpower that contracted its soul to a pitiless militia.

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"This description of the rot in Russia is brilliant.  Candace Rondeaux exposes the corruption in the Russian military that hollowed out its fighting ability, the fragility of its chain of command, the infighting within the Russian security services, the damaging effect of the loss of Syria and African battles.  Prigozhin's Wagner Group, Russia's shadow army, was brutal, amoral, ruthless -- evil."

— Bill Taylor, Former Ambassador to Ukraine