Ukraine, always in our thoughts today, and John Sweeney gives an insight not only into Putin the man but also hardships faced by frontline war correspondents. The resilience and spirit of the Ukrainian people is admirable to behold and Sweeney’s assumption and opinions concerning Putin’s health and state of mind makes for interesting reading. One spoke of his BTR (armoured personnel carrier) breaking down and being towed into battle by a lorry. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, said last weekend: “Some of the comments that he’s not well… I think they’re wishful thinking.

Sweeney intercuts Putins story with his own experience of the leader of Russia and more importantly the people Putin has affected. Overall, especially with Sweeney's conversationalist style and humour, Killer in the Kremlin is a good book to read, and I would recommend it as a solid primer for the works of Luke Harding, Catherine Belton, Mark Urban and Owen Matthews, who help detail many of the people and points in Sweeney's book in greater depth and detail. Hopefully this will wake up a few others as to just how dangerous the Kremlin is and more strict measures will reign in their excesses even more.When I was at the BBC, we didn’t tell the story of Putin’s dark acts as truly as we should have done. The lack of universal conscription shows this fear; the lack of soldiers from Moscow and Saint Petersburg underlines it. A follow-up Panorama programme also hosted by Sweeney, which at an hour is twice the length of the original one was aired on the 28 September 2010. What the Russians [were] desperate to find out is: what is the West’s reaction to the Salisbury poisoning? Common to all three mass killings inside Russia was a total lack of transparency about the investigations into what took place.

The “drunken rage” may exist in Sweeney’s imagination and the “might of Russia” that he refers to was non-existent at the time. This reputation has led some to wonder whether he could be part of an effort by Russian security services to obtain compromising photos or footage of leading politicians, known as “ kompromat“.From this book it is impossible to estimate how many lost lives Putin has been responsible for, but the lists of those who were once close and have died in mysterious circumstances is extraordinary.