Marc Bennetts with Phil Leonard: Witnessing Russia’s Spiral into Madness under Putin

What does it feel like to watch a country change from the inside, and to witness its descent into war?

Marc Bennetts, The Times’s former Russia correspondent, offers a rare first-hand account of Russia’s transformation over 25 years, from the chaotic final years of Yeltsin to Putin’s increasingly repressive regime.

Living in Moscow from 1997, Bennetts witnessed the rise of propaganda, the crushing of dissent and the growing hostility towards the West. Arrested at a protest against the war in Ukraine, he was eventually pulled out of Russia by The Times over concerns for his safety. He then travelled repeatedly to war-torn Ukraine, narrowly escaping death under fire.

In The Descent, he asks how a society can be reshaped by fear, propaganda and power – and what this means for us.