The Jacket for My New Book: ‘The Return of Russia’
The jacket for my next book ‘The Return of Russia: From Yeltsin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin’ is ready.
My thanks to the Yale University Press design team, and to Terry Stiastny, Andrei Soldatov, Precious N. Chatterje-Doody, and Professor Robert Service for reading advance copies, and for their very generous endorsements. You can read them at the end of the press release, below.
The book will be published in the UK and in the US on January 27 and is already available for pre-order, from Waterstones and other booksellers.
I will be doing a number of events in the UK–details to follow on this site–and am very open to any invitation to talk about my work in particular, and contemporary Russian history in general.
You can contact me via this site on the email address below, or through Chloe Foster at Yale University Press (chloe.foster@yaleup.co.uk).
The Return of Russia
From Yeltsin to Putin, the Story of a Vengeful Kremlin
James Rodgers
27th January 2026 | £20 | Hardback | 9780300270815
Contact: Chloe Foster | Head of Publicity
Yale University Press London | chloe.foster@yaleup.co.uk
An incisive and engaging account of post-Soviet Russia—showing how and why the country
has come into confrontation with the West
The escalation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered the most violent conflict seen
on European soil for decades. Millions of people have been displaced, and thousands killed. As the
conflict continues, many in the West are seeking to understand why Putin has followed his ambitions to
such extreme ends.
James Rodgers examines the development of Russia’s relationship with the West from the collapse of
the Soviet Union in 1991 to the present day. Rodgers argues that, while Putin has long distrusted the
West, Western policies have made the situation much worse. He shows that Putin’s political career,
with its transformations from supportive ally to implacable critic of the West, has been the defining
influence on Russia’s place in the contemporary world.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, the West needs to develop a new understanding of Russia’s views
and possible actions—rather than simply ignoring them, as has been the case since the end of the Cold
War.
James Rodgers has reported on Russia since the end of the Soviet period, completing three postings
in Moscow for Reuters and the BBC. He is the author of four books on international affairs, the most
recent being Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin. He is reader in international
journalism at City St George’s, University of London.
“An extremely valuable and comprehensive treatment of trends in post-Soviet Russian politics and
society, and how these have impacted Russia’s place in the world.”
—Precious Chatterje-Doody, author of Russia, Disinformation, and the Liberal Order
“The Return of Russia is an exciting account of the descent into authoritarian threats to dissidents and
neighbouring countries told by a fine correspondent who was there at the time.”
—Robert Service, author of Kremlin Winter: Russia and the Second Coming of Vladimir Putin
“A welcome contribution to the debate about what went wrong, coming from someone who has long
observed—and often been present at—key moments in Russian history as a journalist, from the final
days of the Soviet Union to the rise of Putin’s regime. Rodgers offers a clear-eyed analysis, drawing
extensively on documents from the time.”
—Andrei Soldatov, co-author of Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation