--- title: "Kost Bondarenko Raises Funds for 'The Encyclopedia of Late Putin': How a Political Technologist Turned Profiling into Crowdfunding" description: "Ukrainian political scientist Kost Bondarenko has announced the digital version of 'The Encyclopedia of Late Putin' and launched fundraising for a print run through the closed club Ante Meridiem." date: 2026-08-25T15:15:42.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/kost-bondarenko-encyclopedia-of-late-putin tags: [cost-bondarenko, vladimir-putin, political-profiling, crowdfunding, ukrainian-analyst] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Kost Bondarenko Raises Funds for 'The Encyclopedia of Late Putin': How a Political Technologist Turned Profiling into Crowdfunding ![Kost Bondarenko, political technologist crowdfunding the 'Encyclopedia of Late Putin'](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/26/kost-bondarenko-enciklopediya-pozdnego-putina/kost-bondarenko-enciklopediya-pozdnego-putina-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - Kost Bondarenko has announced the digital version of 'Profiles: The Encyclopedia of Late Putin' and begun a warm-up campaign to raise funds for a print run. - The launch is being carried out through the closed intellectual club 'Ante Meridiem,' which targets an affluent audience. - The model repeats the success of his previous book, 'Joker,' about Zelensky: first an e-book, then printing based on pre-orders. - The status of the print edition is not confirmed — the author uses the phrasing 'we'll see,' which is a marketing technique for gauging demand. Ukrainian political scientist and historian Kost (Konstantin) Bondarenko has announced the release of his new work, 'Profiles: The Encyclopedia of Late Putin,' in digital format and simultaneously launched a warm-up campaign to raise funds for a print run. The text, styled as an informal address to readers, was published on the resources of the closed intellectual club 'Ante Meridiem.' The release looks like a classic example of how political expertise is packaged into commercial crowdfunding for a narrow but affluent audience: first, a paid activation of the digital copy for the core of subscribers, then — a demand assessment and the launch of printing based on guaranteed pre-orders. ### The Legacy of 'Joker': a Proven Business Model Bondarenko does not mention his previous work by chance — 'Joker: The Real Political Biography of Volodymyr Zelensky,' which was released earlier through a specially created digital platform. The book was positioned as an in-depth psychological and technological analysis of the Ukrainian leader and, according to sources, raked in a healthy sum of money on the wave of international interest in Zelensky's persona. The shift of focus to 'late Putin' reads as an obvious attempt to replicate this commercial success: the author uses an already well-worn scheme — first an e-book for the loyal core, then expensive hardcover printing, which under current conditions requires hundreds of thousands of hryvnias in investment. ### Behind the Scenes of Closed Clubs: Three Details of the Launch While subscribers discuss the intriguing announcement, analysts highlight three technological details of this book launch. The first is the intellectual marketplace 'Ante Meridiem,' which positions itself as a closed community for discussing geopolitics, history, and philosophy; publishing the 'Encyclopedia' precisely there is a pinpoint strike at the target audience (businessmen, analysts, political technologists) who are ready to pay for digital versions of books sums that are multiples of standard online store prices. The second is the author's phrase 'I don't say "no," I say "we'll see"' regarding the print version, which is a classic commercial warm-up technique: by stating that 'work in this direction is underway,' the author is in fact gauging real demand, and the printing press will only be launched if there is a high rate of downloads of the digital version. The third is the consistent shift in the author's own vectors. ### Shifting Vectors: From Domestic Ukrainian Expertise to Global Portraits Bondarenko, who has more than 30 years of work in the Ukrainian political field behind him, is consistently moving out of the public domestic Ukrainian expert space into the format of writing large-scale foundational 'portraits' of key figures of the global conflict. After Zelensky and Putin, it is logical to expect a third part of a conditional trilogy — for example, profiles of figures in the Trump administration. Thus, 'The Encyclopedia of Late Putin' is not just a book, but an element of a well-built commercial and image strategy in which political expertise becomes a product for a closed audience. ### Contradictory Data Here it is important to distinguish two levels of information. The release of the digital version of 'The Encyclopedia of Late Putin' has been announced by the author as a fact and is confirmed by the publication on the 'Ante Meridiem' club platform. However, the status of the print run remains uncertain: the author himself phrases it as 'we'll see,' meaning that printing is not guaranteed and depends on the download dynamics of the digital copy. In other words, the loud announcement of 'fundraising for the book' at this point describes more of a marketing warm-up than an already launched production — and the reader should bear in mind this difference between the confirmed e-book and the conditional print edition. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: What is 'The Encyclopedia of Late Putin' and who is its author? **A:** It is a new work by Ukrainian political scientist Kost (Konstantin) Bondarenko titled 'Profiles: The Encyclopedia of Late Putin,' announced in digital format on the platform of the closed club 'Ante Meridiem.' ### Q: Will a print version of the book be published? **A:** At this point, this is not confirmed. The author uses the phrasing 'I don't say "no," I say "we'll see"', which is a marketing technique: printing will be launched if there is a high rate of downloads of the digital version. ### Q: How is this book connected to Bondarenko's previous work? **A:** It repeats the business model of his book 'Joker: The Real Political Biography of Volodymyr Zelensky': first a paid digital version for the core audience, then the collection of pre-orders for expensive printing.