Dr Mark Galeotti is one of the world’s leading experts on Russian crime and security (which are oftenone and the same), which may explain why Moscow banned him in 2022. After a stint with theForeign Office, he has been a scholar and think-tanker inLondon, New York, Moscow, Prague andFlorence, and now heads the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and is an honorary professor atUniversity College London and a senior fellow with RUSI and the Council on Geostrategy. His morethan 30 books includePutin’sWars: from Chechnya to Ukraine(2022),The Weaponisation ofEverything(2022),We Need to Talk about Putin(2019) andThe Vory: Russia's super mafia(2018).