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

by Candace Rondeaux Narrated by Allyson Johnson

Overview

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

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Rondeaux’s detailed analysis shows how the country’s restructuring under Putin provided fertile soil for Prigozhin.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“A layered account that draws on corporate registries, court records, ship and plane path data as well as multiple interviews. The end product? A brilliant guide to future putschists on how not to topple Putin.”—Times (UK)

“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

“Rondeaux combines vivid journalistic clarity and unbiased academic reflection in Putin’s Sledgehammer.”—Irish Times

“Reads more like a breathless spy thriller than an academic exploration... Putin’s Sledgehammer is a seminal work of incisive insight not only about the Wagner Group and its late charismatic leader but also about modern mercenaryism and why we should care about it.”—Washington Independent Review of Books

"Comprehensive… exceedingly well researched… enlightening… a must-read case study on the future of proxy war in the 21st century.”—Small Wars Journal

“Rondeaux places Prigozhin and other paramilitary warlords, who had been active in fighting Ukraine long before the 2022 invasion, in the context of contemporary Russian politics, with Putin betting that the West had no strategies to counter them—correctly, she adds…An illuminating look at a nationalist army.” 

—Kirkus

“Highly detailed and magnificently written, Putin’s Sledgehammer has much to offer…. A must-read foreign-affairs title.”

—Booklist

“Candace Rondeaux has given us a riveting story of how Putin used a criminal mercenary organization to do his dirty work.  She also tells us how the Wagner Group turned on its master.  Putin’s Sledgehammer is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of Russia and how to counter the Kremlin’s wars and shadow wars across the globe.”—H.R. McMaster, former national intelligence advisor of the US

"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

“Reads more like a breathless spy thriller than an academic exploration... Putin’s Sledgehammer is a seminal work of incisive insight not only about the Wagner Group and its late charismatic leader but also about modern mercenaryism and why we should care about it.” 

—Washington Independent Review of Books

Kirkus Reviews

2025-04-04
A history of the now-suppressed Wagner Group, once a key element in Vladimir Putin’s private army.

In a sense, writes global security analyst Rondeaux, the rise of the Wagner Group fit in seamlessly with the way of war during the last decades of the Soviet Union, “a time of big armies and small wars fought by proxies under the long shadow cast by the prospect of global nuclear annihilation.” As the Soviet Union fell apart, Yevgeny Prigozhin, “an ex-convict turned hotdog salesman and serial entrepreneur,” used his street-gang smarts to build an empire that embraced real estate, construction, restaurants, casinos, and, in time, that private army, staffed by both ex-convicts and disaffected veterans of the Soviet military. The concurrent rise of Putin to power found the Wagner Group in a position to be of great use: It could serve as a projection of Russian power while keeping the government protected from international sanctions. Indeed, with many of its fighters now folded into a group called the Africa Corps, the Wagner Group operates all over the African continent while serving as a “crucial test case for the defense ministry’s efforts to reassert control over its paramilitaries.” Therein, of course, lies a rub, for Prigozhin attempted to buck the control of the Kremlin to freelance his own way across the Ukraine—and then threatened mutiny when he ran afoul of the generals. The result: Rondeaux suggests that the plane crash that ended Prigozhin’s life was the result of a planted bomb. (Putin blamed it on Prigozhin, “high on cocaine and playing with live hand grenades before the plane exploded.”) Rondeaux places Prigozhin and other paramilitary warlords, who had been active in fighting Ukraine long before the 2022 invasion, in the context of contemporary Russian politics, with Putin betting that the West had no strategies to counter them—correctly, she adds.

An illuminating look at a nationalist army that, now apparently in harness, was once an outsize geopolitical force.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191402147
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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