This book presents for the first time the full political biography of the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin and traces the stages of the entry into the political elite of V.V. Putin, who took power from his hands. At the same time, it is a chronicle of more than ten years of fierce struggle for power in the Kremlin, replete with details and details, usually hidden from the eyes of an outside observer. In the final part of his study, the author, who has rare, information-rich materials, analyzes what was done in the first years of Vladimir Putin's presidency.