Vividly written and based on Litvinenkos 20 years of insiders knowledge of Russian spy campaigns, Blowing up Russia describes how the successor of the KGB fabricated terrorist attacks and launched war to have the unknown Putin elected with a landslide victory. Alexander Litvinenko served in the Russian military for more than 20 years achieving the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1999 he was arrested and imprisoned on charges that were later dismissed. He escaped from Russia, and lived with his family in Great Britain, where he was granted political asylum in 2001. He died of radio-active poisoning by Polonium 210 in 2006.