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Ebury Press acquires biography of figure behind attempted Russian coup, Prigozhin
Ebury Press has acquired a “revelatory” new biography of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the figure behind the recent attempted Russian coup.
Mark Galeotti, author of We Need To Talk About Putin and A Short History of Russia, will collaborate with Anna Arutunyan on The Warlord. Robyn Drury, editorial director at Ebury Press, acquired world all languages rights directly from the authors earlier this year. It will be published in June 2024.
The publisher says: “Yevgeny Prigozhin has emerged as one of the most dangerous warlords in the world and as one of Vladimir Putin’s chief rivals in Russia’s tumultuous political climate, now exiled after leading Wagner’s attempted coup. But what is the truth about this enigmatic figure, the influence he exerts, and the role he might play in the future of Russia?
“Drawing on new research, this book traces the rise of Russia’s most prominent non-state actor and examines the political climate that propelled a convicted gangster with no government office to the formidable role he has come to occupy. An essential story of Russia’s recent history, The Warlord is also a compelling insight into its likely future."
Drury said: “It has been a privilege to publish two acclaimed books on Russia by Mark, and earlier in the year he and Anna determined that Prigozhin would play a big role in the story of Russia’s ongoing conflicts, both internal and external, as he has done in the country’s recent history. In recent days the shocking news out of Russia has only confirmed this, and we will be proud to publish their book next year.”
Arutunyan said: "From when I first was doing fieldwork in the war-torn Donbas, I kept coming across the Wagner mercenary group and its head, Yevgeny Prigozhin. It became clear that this was a man who by his very being was exposing the workings of Putin’s state and once I felt the material I had on him and his empire could fill a book, it was time to write it.”
Galeotti added: “Prigozhin’s story is the story of Putin’s Russia, an almost-medieval tale of an opportunist elevated by the monarch’s patronage, in a country where a hot-dog seller can become a mercenary chieftain. By telling his story, we also illuminate just how modern Russia works."
Arutunyan is a Russia-American journalist, analyst and author. Born in Moscow, she was raised and educated in the US before returning to Russia as a journalist. She covered two decades of Russian politics, first as reporter and editor at the Moscow News, then as a correspondent and analyst. She has served as senior Russia analyst for the International Crisis Group, and only left Russia after the February 2022 invasion.
She is now associate director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. She is the author of several books on Russia, including The Putin Mystique (Skyscraper), translated into over a dozen languages, and the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine (Hurst).
Dr Galeotti is the executive director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence, an honorary professor at UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies and a senior associate fellow at RUSI.
He is also affiliated to the Council on Geostrategy and the Institute of International Relations Prague. He has been a research fellow at the UK Foreign Office, a professor at New York University, head of the Centre for European Security at the Institute of International Relations Prague and a visiting fellow at MGIMO (Moscow), Rutgers-Newark (NJ), Charles University (Prague) and the European University Institute (Florence).
Until he was named in the first batch of British citizens to be barred from Russia in June 2022, he travelled frequently to Moscow and across the Russian Federation. His recent books include Putin’s Wars: from Chechnya to Ukraine (Bloomsbury, 2022), The Weaponisation of Everything (Yale, 2022), We Need to Talk About Putin (Ebury, 2019) and The Vory (Yale, 2018).
