PROGRAMM

Working at the heart of Russian power, the enigmatic Vadim Baranov—nicknamed the Wizard of the Kremlin—is Putin’s chief spin doctor. Using his background in experimental theater and reality TV to turn the entire country into an avant-garde political stage, he’s discovered the lines between truth and lies, news and propaganda have become indistinguishable, and he wants out. Political scientist and prize-winning writer GIULIANO DA EMPOLI tells Financial Times journalist FREDERICK STUDEMANN about his all-too-plausible novel The Wizard of the Kremlin, taking readers into the heart of the Kremlin, and detailing how fiction can give us insights into real-world events and figures.

​

GIULIANO DA EMPOLI is an Italian and Swiss political essayist and novelist and a professor at Sciences Po Paris. He was Deputy Mayor for Culture in Florence and a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. He served as senior advisor for different ministries in Italy and established the think tank Volta in 2016. In 2022, he published his debut novel Le Mage du Kremlin (Gallimard, 2022), for which he received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française.