About the book: 2017 / Alexander Valeryevich Skobov, a politician, publicist and writer, knows well what the “monster of power” is. During Soviet times, he was listed as a dissident and was subjected to repression; after the collapse of the USSR, seeing that the new government retained the worst features of the previous one, he decisively criticized it. In his new book, Alexander Skobov argues that the Kremlin elite is now entering a state of agony: “the highest stage of Putinism” is characterized by persecution of dissidents, ideological prohibitions and “ preventive repression." The conservative-patriotic “Putin Doctrine” is losing its rational basis, acquiring an obvious police character within the country and an aggressive character in the international arena. According to the author, all this indicates the imminent collapse of the system, and he is already making certain predictions about post-Putin Russia.