At dawn on June 29, 2021, Russian investigative journalist Roman Badanin experienced an abrupt and unsettling intrusion at his Moscow home. Masked officers from the Federal Security Service (FSB) forced their way inside, a tactic mirrored at the residence of his colleague Mikhail Rubin. Both men, founders of the independent investigative media outlet Proekt, have faced escalating harassment amid a broader crackdown on dissent under President Vladimir Putin’s administration.

Badanin and Rubin, seasoned journalists with decades of experience, have endured threats, interrogation, official labeling as “foreign agents,” bans from press events, and multiple searches of their offices. The risks faced by Proekt staff are severe; some colleagues have reportedly died in sudden, suspicious circumstances or been victims of unexplained attacks. Rubin recounted that the first threats came in 2019 after an investigation into the head of Putin’s propaganda apparatus. Security agents even questioned Rubin’s parents about their son’s alleged betrayal of the country.

Shortly after being declared an “undesirable” media organization by the Kremlin in mid-2019, Rubin fled Moscow. Badanin, who had been vacationing with his family abroad at the time, chose exile over returning to Russia, fearing imprisonment. The two journalists have since settled abroad but say the danger persists. In 2023, FBI agents warned Badanin in California of potential assassination plots targeting him by foreign services, underscoring the continued threats to their safety.

Badanin and Rubin have documented their experiences and revelations in a nearly 800-page biography of Vladimir Putin titled *The Tsar in Person*, available in Russian and French. The work traces Putin’s trajectory from a low-level clerk and KGB operative in St. Petersburg to his long-standing rule over Russia since 2000. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and their extensive investigative backgrounds, they portray Putin as a ruthless autocrat who operates above legal or moral constraints, wielding power with what they describe as "limitless cruelty."

Their portrayal depicts Putin as a modern tsar who governs without ideology or conviction, emblematic of a regime enforcing a pervasive climate of fear and repression. They write that the book emerged from their personal encounters with state violence, exile, and the deaths of close associates. The authors hope that their work will undermine the conditions that have allowed Putin’s grip on power to endure.

The publication also serves as a chronicle of Russia’s evolution from the Soviet Union’s collapse to the current era, aimed particularly at younger Russians unfamiliar with the nation’s recent history. Understandably, the Kremlin has banned the book within Russia, further highlighting the regime’s efforts to suppress independent journalism and public scrutiny of its leadership.

Despite their physical removal from Russia, both journalists acknowledge ongoing risks from what they term “Putin’s death squads.” Their experience underscores persistent threats facing investigative reporters who expose the inner workings of the Kremlin amid a tightening authoritarian environment.