At dawn on June 29, 2021, Russian journalist Roman Badanin was abruptly awakened by a knock on his Moscow apartment door. When he opened it, masked men forcibly entered. Simultaneously, a similar operation targeted the home of his colleague, Mikhail Rubin. The officers belonged to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, a force the journalists say operates within a broader “climate of fear and violence” under President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Badanin and Rubin are co-founders of Proekt, an independent investigative media outlet that has faced intense pressure from the Russian authorities. Their experiences include repeated threats, interrogations, being labeled as foreign agents, bans from official events, and office searches. Several of their colleagues have died under suspicious circumstances involving sudden accidents or unexplained attacks. Rubin recounted that the first official threat came in 2019 after Proekt published an investigation into the head of Putin’s propaganda apparatus. He said security agents even visited his parents, accusing him of betraying Russia.

Following the June 2021 raids, Rubin found his passport deliberately placed on a table during the search—a signal that he was free to leave Russia. “I left Moscow the next morning,” he said. Badanin, then on vacation in Morocco with his family, decided not to return, citing the stark choice between prison or exile. Both journalists have since continued their work abroad.

Their nearly 800-page biography of Putin, titled *The Tsar in Person*, chronicles the president’s rise from a low-level clerk and undercover KGB employee in St. Petersburg to Russia’s most powerful figure since 2000. Though not the first detailed examination of Putin’s regime, their book is notable for its comprehensive scope and meticulous research. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and decades of investigative reporting, the authors portray Putin as a ruthless authoritarian who operates without ideology or conviction. They depict him as a modern autocrat willing to employ unlimited cruelty to maintain power, with political opponents often meeting mysterious, violent ends including poisonings and suspicious accidents.

The book also serves as a broader history of Russia from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the present day. Badanin explained the work is aimed primarily at younger Russians unfamiliar with their country’s history before Putin’s era. It is banned in Russia but has been published in Russian and French, winning the Grand Prix Strasbourg literary award for its detailed narrative and courageous investigative journalism.

Badanin emphasized to international audiences that misinformation about Putin abounds, but the facts alone reveal a leader whose power drive overshadows any ideological motivation. “The war in Ukraine has made this clear: this war is not an extension of his ideas, it is merely a means of staying in power,” he said.

Despite residing abroad, both journalists acknowledge ongoing security risks. FBI officials reportedly warned Badanin at his California home about potential threats from foreign intelligence operatives. Though he feels somewhat safer in the United States than in Europe or Russia, he remains cautious about his personal safety, underscoring the long reach of Kremlin reprisals against dissidents overseas.