Putin's World War

Russia is threatening the West with World War III, even though it has already been waging it for years. As its weapons, the Kremlin uses agents of chaos, a covert operation, fake priests spreading hate speech, hackers recruited from prison, and a public’s gullibility.

Putin's World War is Jessikka Aro’s new book about the Kremlin’s global war, presenting the secret operations of Putin’s intelligence services in detail. The book takes the reader on a breath-taking journey from the lobby of the Helsinki Courts of Appeal to the controversial Bronze Soldier statue in Tallinn, from the media centre run by the Russian military intelligence in Berlin to the Russian troll factory that operated in Ghana, West Africa.

At the heart of this book is the story of a Polish flight that crashed in Smolensk, Russia, in 2010, killing all onboard, including the Polish president and his wife, as well as many other high-ranking members of the Polish government. The details of this tragic event are obscured by a successful wave of Kremlin-launched information operations. At the time, there was no public awareness of Russia’s practice of information-psychological warfare, nor knowledge about special service operations abroad aimed at gaining political influence. Anyone addressing such phenomena in 2010 would have been labelled an alarmist and a conspiracy theorist. However, by 2024, such activities are viewed in a different light.

Through Aro’s persistent investigations, readers will gain new understanding of Russia’s hybrid war, a series of relentless attacks designed to undermine the West.