Investigations, exile, and the FBI: the Russian journalist who recounts the Putin system

When two FBI agents arrive at the door of Roman Badanine's house in the fall of 2025 in California, they are smiling, but their message is disturbing.

They warn the 49-year-old Russian journalist, exiled in the United States, who has been investigating Vladimir Putin and his entourage for more than twenty years, that he, his wife and his four children could be the target of an attack by a "foreign intelligence service".

"I wasn't scared, but I was surprised," Roman Badanine told AFP in an interview Thursday in Paris: "It was the first time I had met FBI agents."

Roman Badanine wrote with his Russian colleague Mikhail Rubin "The Tsar in Person", a book which tells without taboo the political rise and private life of Vladimir Putin, the French translation of which was released on September 17 (Les Arènes editions).

Based on interviews with some 300 people, including members of the Russian president's inner circle, this 800-page tome unravels the web of lies, corruption, extramarital affairs, and links to organized crime under Putin.

The book recently received the Strasbourg/Crédit Mutuel Grand Prize. This investigation, which reads "like a spy novel", shows in particular "how much Vladimir Putin has become a prisoner of his own system", explains Mathilde Reumaux, co-secretary general of the Prize, to AFP, emphasizing the commitment of the authors "which is not just a word, but a matter of life and death".

– "Not stupid" –

This recognition has a bitter taste.

For years, Roman Badanin, founder of the investigative media outlet Proyekt, and his team documented the abuses of Vladimir Putin, his inner circle, and the Russian security services. Yet much of the world preferred to look the other way, the authors argue. It was only when Putin invaded Ukraine that the West finally paid attention.

Another source of frustration for Roman Badanine: certain Western analyses, which he considers to be of mediocre quality, on the functioning of Russia and Putin.

He warns against the temptation to underestimate the 73-year-old leader, who has been in power since 2000. "He has become a subject of mockery. But unfortunately, Putin is not stupid. And Putin is, clearly, not a coward."

According to him, most of the Russian president's entourage wants the fighting in Ukraine to stop.

The commanders on the ground understand "the price of war," the journalist says. "No one tells us that FSB officers are saying to Putin, 'Let's attack Lithuania' or 'Let's go to Lviv' (a city in western Ukraine, near the Polish border)."

According to him, Putin is a victim of his own ambitions: "Initially, he wanted a quick victory to strengthen his position in every respect, both at home and abroad." He wanted to prove that he was "a man, a real man," he says, using the Russian term "muzhik," with its strong macho connotations.

– "Reverse gear" impossible –

Four and a half years after the start of what has become the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War, the war in Ukraine shows no sign of an imminent end.

European countries fear that the Kremlin will go even further in response to their support for Kyiv. Putin has become entrenched, says Roman Badanine: "What's in his mind now? 'Everyone is against me. I can't back down.'"

The two authors left Russia in 2021, after a search of their home by agents of the FSB, the Russian security services.

They are currently working on a documentary about the FSB.

According to Roman Badanine, this service must be dismantled if Russia ever wants to become a democracy.

As long as this KGB successor organization exists, he will not bring his family back to Russia. "It is the biggest threat to everything living there," he believes.

His advice to the next French president, who will replace Emmanuel Macron after the presidential election next year? "Remember that everything you do with Putin will, first and foremost, be used by Putin to strengthen his grip on power in Russia."