The Rise Of Putin: Russian Organised Crime

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

*Declassified Club exclusive: ⁠⁠⁠SUBSCRIBE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to listen to the full series* Vladimir Putin has left Soviet East Germany and is now back in St Petersburg, dipping his toe in the world of organised crime. Listen as David and Gordon are once again joined by one of the world's leading experts on Russian organised crime, Mark Galeotti, to explore the rise of Russia's authoritarian overlord. ------------------- THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026: Buy your tickets to see David and Gordon live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 31 January: https://www.livenation.co.uk/the-rest-is-classified-live-tickets-adp1627115 ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠⁠ - go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, quarterly livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ⁠ ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Email: [email protected] Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Social Producer: Emma Jackson Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com.
0:17.3	Music Well, welcome back, club members, secret squirrels, to the second part of this exclusive mini-series for club members.
0:35.2	We are looking at the rise of Vladimir Putin, his tieb into KGB,
0:40.3	his ascent to power. This is running alongside our series on his show. We keep calling him
0:47.5	his chef, Gordon, although he's so much more. You're getting progoshin is...
0:50.7	The Gordon Ramsey of Moscow, as we've just...
0:53.7	Gordon Ramsey. The Gordon Ramsey became a mercenary warlord, that was our thesis.
0:59.1	That's right. That's right. We also want to say thank you to any new squirrels who have joined.
1:05.6	We hope there's a whole scurry Gordon of squirrels who have joined the club to listen to this series. So for any new
1:12.5	members, welcome and thank you for joining. We are of course joined again by Mark Galiotti,
1:19.2	historian, researcher on Russia, Master of All Things Putin and Organized Crime in the Nexus of
1:27.0	both. And we really left off,
1:29.3	I guess, last time with Putin trudging back to the Soviet Union from East Germany after the
1:35.5	collapse of the East German regime. And I guess what he maybe suspects, but I guess doesn't
1:43.1	quite know is as he does so, time is running out for the
1:48.2	Soviet Union itself. So he's gone from one collapsing regime to another. But I guess, Mark,
1:54.1	the coup in August 1991, which is going to be the kind of pivotal moment for the end of the
1:59.9	Soviet Union, isn't really predicted by people, is it?
2:03.3	I mean, the Soviet Union is kind of struggling along at this period
2:07.0	with signs of stress and weakness.
	...

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