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Putin Paperback – August 29, 2023

by Philip Short (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 244 ratings
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The first comprehensive, fully up-to-date biography of Vladimir Putin, woven into the tumultuous saga of Russia over the last sixty years.

“Anyone wanting to learn more about Putin’s personality, ideas, power and the threat he has come to pose to world peace should read this outstanding biography.”
―New York Times bestselling author Ian Kershaw

Vladimir Putin is the world’s most dangerous man. Alone among world leaders, he has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm and has threatened to do so. He invades his neighbors, most recently Ukraine, meddles in western elections, and orders assassinations inside and outside Russia. His regime is autocratic and deeply corrupt. But that is only half the story.

Unflinching, hard-hitting, and objective, former BBC correspondent and author Philip Short’s biography gives us the whole tale, up to the present day. To the fullest extent anyone has yet been able, Short cracks open the strongman’s thick carapace to reveal the man underneath those bare-chested horseback rides. In this deeply researched account, readers meet the Putin who slept in the same room as his parents until he was twenty-five years old, who backed out of his wedding right beforehand, and who learned English in order to be able to talk to George W. Bush.

Vladimir Putin is wreaking havoc in Europe, threatening global peace and stability and exposing his fellow citizens to devastating economic countermeasures. Yet puzzlingly many Russians continue to support him. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the many facets of the man behind the mask that Putin wears on the world stage.

Drawing on almost two hundred interviews conducted over eight years in Russia, the United States, and Europe and on source material in more than a dozen languages, Putin will be the last word for years to come.

Includes photographs

Previous page
  1. Print length
    912 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Holt Paperbacks
  4. Publication date
    August 29, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.7 x 8.2 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1250861543
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1250861542
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Philip Short's Putin

“A compelling, impressive and methodically researched account of Putin’s life so far. [It] extensively covers the dark moments of Putin’s career…. The Putin of Short’s book is not someone you would invite to dinner: he is crude and cold, arrogant and heartless.”
―Peter Baker, The New York Times

“Convincing. . . . The most comprehensive English-language biography to date of the Russian leader.”
―The New Yorker

“Anyone wanting to learn more about Putin’s personality, ideas, power and the threat he has come to pose to world peace should read this outstanding biography.”
―Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler

“A biography years in the making offers a thorough look at the Russian president’s life, career and concentration of power. Short…draws on hundreds of interviews for this portrait, charting Putin’s transformation into a ruthless autocrat.”
―The New York Times Book Review

“Magisterial…. Illuminating…. Short’s Putin is a man of violent emotions ruthlessly repressed; habitually late (a power play over those kept waiting); devoid of small talk; so inscrutable that when he proposed to his wife she initially thought he was dumping her.”
―The Guardian

“Philip Short’s elegantly written and pacy Putin is a doorstopper and the product of eight years of research. Its publication, a few months after the invasion, makes it the most up-to-date biography available of Vladimir Putin.”
―Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

“Compelling and nuanced.”
―San Francisco Chronicle

“An unflinching, comprehensive, up-to-date biography of autocratic Russian President Vladimir Putin as he wreaks havoc on the global stage, digging deep to reveal the man behind the mask.”
―USA Today


Praise for Biographies by Philip Short

“[Short] is excellent at coining pithy summations of political motives that ring humanly true.”
―The New York Times Book Review

“Achieves the near impossible feat of translating madness into logic. This biography is a tour de force.”
―David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W.E.B. Du Bois

“Nowhere has the story . . . been told with greater authority.”
―The Washington Post

“Unerringly broadens the inquiry to the point where serious history begins, and serious judgments can be made.”
―Financial Times

“Masterfully prob[ing].”
―Wall Street Journal

“The best sort of biography―deeply informed, entirely readable, and at the level of sophistication and complexity needed for its particular subject.”
―Richard Bernstein, coauthor of The Coming Conflict with China

“Chillingly clear . . . Complete and unflinching.”
―The Economist

About the Author

Philip Short has written several definitive biographies including Mao: A Life and Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare. He earlier had a long career as a foreign correspondent in Moscow, Beijing, and Washington, D.C., for the BBC, the Economist, and the Times of London.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Holt Paperbacks (August 29, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 912 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250861543
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250861542
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.7 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 244 ratings

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Philip Short

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
244 global ratings
Fascinating Ride But Takes a Sharp Left Turn at the End
4 Stars
Fascinating Ride But Takes a Sharp Left Turn at the End
I came across this book at my local B&N. I started reading and was immediately sucked into a story that in many ways is that of the collapse of the Soviet Union and all that followed but seen through Putin’s changing life circumstances. For the vast majority of this extensive book the author takes a balanced yet critical approach to all aspects of Putin’s rise to power at a time of cataclysmic domestic changes within Russia and how he has conducted himself and led the country. Unfortunately, as a previous reviewer also indicated, there is a noticeable and quite jarring shift in perspective as more recent times and the Ukraine crises take center stage towards the end. Balance and nuance are jettisoned in favor of a narrative that largely parrots the talking points of the mainstream media and current US regime and western governments.
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Top reviews from the United States

PubliusRedux
5.0 out of 5 stars Painstakingly Researched, Enlightening and Non-Judgmental
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2023
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Of all the biographical and semi-biographical articles and books I have read about Vladimir Putin, Mr. Short’s (who also wrote what is considered by many reviewers the definitive one volume bio of Mao (Mao: A Life)) Putin stands out for several reasons.
First it is painstakingly non-judgmental and researched (over 130 pages of end-footnotes, in fine print). And a good deal of the book is devoted to sifting through all the various “stories” and “allegations” surrounding what Mr. Putin knew, or did not know, about various assassinations, “terrorist” incidents, a downed civilian airliner and the slow and steady deterioration in US-Russian government relations during Mr. Putin’s presidency (and how much of that deterioration was attributable to short sited, self centered US foreign policy.)
Second it is actually enlightening for a novice such as myself on the mysteries of the workings of Russian government. For example, he explains how the Russian Presidency was deliberately written to be a much more powerful executive branch than the American one and consequently supports, not just enables, authoritarian rule. (Which I suppose should not surprise us as that is the only type of government Russia has had—regardless of its name brand—since the 1600s.)
Third, Mr. Short also picks through all the fact versus fiction (to the best we are able to given the available sources) about Mr. Putin’s road to the Russian white house. For example the major influence of Mr. Putin’s training and service in the KGB, most importantly in East Germany, was neither related to spy craft or interrogation techniques—but learning how to get things done in a bureaucracy as labyrinthine as any in history. (For the complete review, please view in The Readers Corner of the progressive republican forum.)
15 people found this helpful
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b
4.0 out of 5 stars Putin Understands U.S. Politicians Better Than They Understand Putin?
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2022
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Philip Short portrays Putin as a clever, calculating authoritarian who is passionate about Ukraine as a "legitimate" part of Russia. Putin seems to read well Clinton, Bush, Trump and Biden - but he may be surprised by a very stubborn Biden. I thought the book was well researched and it held my interest although keeping track of all the Russian characters since the eighties caused my eyes to glaze over. I don't know that many Americans will read it but keeping our enemy closer probably requires we study him and what others write about him.
12 people found this helpful
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Robert Walker
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2023
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"Putin" by Philip Short is, amongst the many recent publications on Putin, the most thorough and scholarly accounts of the rise and possible eventual fall of this complex politician. I've read 3-4 of the recent publications on Putin and his circle of oligarchs, but Short's work takes the time to carefully parse out what is actually factual from what is believed to be the case. The portrait of Putin is far more complex than what other texts have suggested. He is not just a thief or a mafia don, though he has many of these traits. He comes across as much more literate, far more deliberate, and far more engaged with his global political vision than one might think. Reading this book, you walk away with a far more nuanced view of not only Putin, but also of the whole world context of the issues at stake. Short gives a remarkably balanced reading of the interchange between the West and Russia. And the book also challenges western readers to re-think American exceptionalism and how it has so many unintended consequences.

His list of persons interviewed is 9 pages long, so the sources of information are extensive and derived key person's experiences plus published materials.

I still walk away from this book worried about, not just the forms of government that prevail in Russian, but the role of Russian culture in creating political, religious, and economic structures that appear so self defeating and difficult for the rest of the world to relate to.

This is not a book for the lazy - 674 pages of primary text and about 160 pages of notes, but it seems to me to be a definitive text on this most critical topic.
10 people found this helpful
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G. Carlos Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful and Enlightening
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023
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The author reviews the life of Putin and the evolution of Russian during his lifetime with detailed research, thought and precision. That alone makes the work well worth the read. The author also challenges the reader to see Putin and the history he created from a Russian point of view. In doing so, the author exposes the repeated errors of the West’s hubristic bias while acknowledging the ambiguity and perhaps impossibility of creating a better historical outcome with a leader like Putin.

Perhaps a lesson here is this: When in a position of relative power, the duty of self reflection, critique and restraint becomes all the more necessary. Arguably, it is a lesson the West failed to learn after “winning” the Cold War and one Putin failed to learn after consolidating power in the Russia he both restored and built.
2 people found this helpful
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D.B. Rea
5.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023
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This is an amazing comprehensive biography of Putin. It's long so be prepared for that.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Alessandro
5.0 out of 5 stars Conoscere Putin tramite Short
Reviewed in Italy on January 3, 2024
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Libro veramente eccezionale per l'analisi estremamente accurata di Putin: vita, avi, carriera, possibili sviluppi futuri del conflitto in corso con l' Ukraina L'autore ha fatto un lavoro lodevole, dove ogni frase è pensata e meditata e vera sulla base di riferimenti oggettivi Un libro da leggere se si vuole capire qualcosa di Putin e della Russia Alessandro
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MR. M. WELCH
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and informative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2022
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Currently reading this
Good account of this period in Russian politics
5 people found this helpful
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JC
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-Provoking, Balanced Political Biography of Putin and Russia’s Evolution During his Life
Reviewed in Japan on January 5, 2024
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Philip Short’s “Putin: His Life and Times” is an extremely well researched and crisply written biography of Vladimir Putin and how Russia evolved during Putin’s life – including before he came to power -- to the present. How Russia evolved during Putin’s life before coming to power is extremely important -- I had not known that the 1990s was a dire time for all but a few Russians and a period which most Russians look back on with great trepidation.

I have read many political memoirs and political biographies and found this one a “page turner” – hard to put down.

The narrative text in the hardcover version is 672 pages; the footnotes cover about 130 pages.

The massive number of footnotes reflect Mr. Short’s painstaking research – he took 8 years to complete this book. Short’s 3-page “Note on Sources,” says because many facts about Putin’s life are disputed, he felt sources needed to be identified to enable readers to make their own conclusions about source reliability and resulting conclusions. Mr. Short did not use anonymous sources.

The list of people interviewed covers 8 ½ pages. That list does not include Vladimir Putin; presumably Mr. Short was not able to interview Putin. Short does, however, cite the 2001 book “First Person” which contains a series of interviews Putin gave during his first Presidential campaign which provides significant insights into Putin’s thoughts and worldview up to 2001.

The version of the book I purchased seems to have been published in June, 2022. It has less discussion of the Ukrainian invasion than readers might want and it of course does not discuss the 2023 events involving Yevgeny Prigozhin. It would have been fascinating to read how Mr. Short analyzed Prigozhin’s actions, how Putin and his government handled those actions, and what it means for Putin’s future. Nevertheless, I think this book will have enduring value for many readers, one they will retain and perhaps read again in its entirety.

I’d recommend anyone debating whether to get this book watch two videos on YouTube. The first is a 90-minute video where Mr. Short talks about his book at Dartmouth University; the second is Mitch Jeserich’s 48 minute “Letters and Politics” interview with Mr. Short.

The Dartmouth video contains an introduction, followed by Mr. Short making about a 40 minute presentation on Putin, followed by him answering student/attendee questions. Mr. Short seems to be as an extremely thoughtful and perceptive historian whose classes I’d eagerly sign up for.

The ancient – and still influential – Chinese military strategist and philosopher emphasized knowing your adversary/enemy – meaning their strengths, weaknesses, traits, and preferred manner of operating. It is also critical to consider how the cultural context in which a leader acts can influence the leader’s evolution. Russia has a history of strong, domineering leaders, many of whom by Western standards were far worse than Putin (e.g. Stalin, Tsar Ivan The Terrible). The Russian Presidency was also designed to foster strong Presidential leadership. As noted below, when Putin came to power he was not, by many accounts, an imperious person. By 2020, if not earlier, that changed dramatically.

Short’s description of Putin’s early years, his early career to include a period with the KGB, and his rise to power can be perceived as showing the most talented person – in terms of a serious no-nonsense person dedicated to restoring Russia as a significant international power and bringing back some form of order and stability to the daily lives of most Russians -- rose to the top. Specifically:

-- Putin grew up in a tough neighborhood; he was not a son of the Communist Party elite. It seems, however, he had parents who cared about him, giving him a solid home.

-- While working (loyally) for his mentor, St. Petersburg Mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, Putin learned many things – including learning to avoid mistakes Sobchak made -- such as (needlessly) making enemies.

-- In an environment where pay-offs, bribes, and corruption were rampant, it appears Putin largely avoided taking bribes, recognizing that accepting such payments would give others something to use against him.

-- Unlike Yeltsin, Putin seemed to avoid drinking to excess. This is not a moral point; rather, it reflects a bias that if one presumes to be a country’s leader, they should be in control of their senses at all times they conduct state affairs – which is virtually all the time they are outside of their home.

-- Short cites numerous accounts of foreign business people and government officials saying that when they dealt with Putin he, unlike many of his contemporaries in the various governmental offices, was competent and got things done.

-- Later, after becoming Acting President and subsequently President, Putin impressed Tony Blair and Madeleine Albright with his thorough command of issues. Tony Brenton, British ambassador to Russia, whose experiences with Putin were not positive, acknowledged the only other leader he had met who was as well prepared substantively to address issues was Margeret Thatcher.

-- On 12 August 2000 military command lost contact with the Kursk, a nuclear submarine. That day Putin had left for his Summer Holiday in Sochi. He was about 100 days into his first Presidential term with high popularity ratings. The Defense Minister informed Putin the next morning the Kursk was missing, adding a search was already underway and assuring Putin he was not needed in Moscow.

-- Meanwhile, as the week progressed, family members of the Kursk crew became increasingly distraught and various press outlets contrasted the agonizing uncertainty the family members were experiencing with Putin’s remaining on his sunny vacation as if nothing was wrong.

-- While Putin came under increasing criticism as the week wore on, even by Friday the Kremlin leadership was reluctant to call him to return. Several assistants persisted and later that day the various officials contacted Putin and presented their divergent views.

-- Putin returned to Moscow that night.

-- The next day the military admitted for the first time the Kursk crew had almost all certainly perished.

-- Back in Moscow Putin quickly appreciated the severity of the situation as many Russians were blaming him for the failure to rescue the crew. Putin decided to personally meet with the families of the crew members. That weekend a Deputy Prime Minister for military affairs and an Admiral met with the family members. At one point a woman who had lost her son shouted at the Deputy PM “you swine” and screamed at the Admiral “tear off your epaulettes and go shoot yourself.” A staff officer tried to calm her while a nurse came up from behind, injected her with a sedative, causing her to collapse and she was carried away.

-- Putin traveled to Murmansk Tuesday afternoon for what Short says would be “the toughest meeting of his career.”

-- Tuesday morning the same Deputy Prime Minister had announced the authorities had known for a full week that none of the crew had survived.

-- Putin went to the Garrison Officer’s Hall that evening where about 500 family members were waiting. Short notes one woman whispered to her companion as Putin passed “he’s committing suicide, they’ll tear him to pieces.” The reception was hostile. Journalists were not allowed but one managed to get in posing as a Russian NGO rep. Short says “no Russian leader, before or since, has ever experienced a public tongue-lashing like that.” The journalist later commented he feared Putin would not get out alive, commenting on the atmosphere of hatred, pain, and despair. Putin stayed for about three hours. No one was injected with sedatives or carried away. While no one was happy with Putin they – and much of Russia -- respected him for his willingness to face the family members and do his best to make amends on behalf of the nation. Putin’s approval rating recovered by the end of the year. Short notes that leading up to and after the election many people had perceived Putin favorably because they felt he was just like them. His willingness to face the families probably reinforced that perception and much of the public credited him for doing the right thing, even if a bit late.

-- Those who are inclined to dismiss Putin as a faceless figurehead for vested interests like the KGB might want to consider the poise and skill Putin showed in this episode. This episode, as well as others in the book, provides compelling indicia that Putin thinks for himself. A reader can condemn Putin’s invasion and subsequent actions regarding the 2022 Ukraine invasion while still acknowledging that he is an extremely perceptive and talented leader who deserves respect and must not be underestimated.

-- At least in his early Presidential years Putin was not imperious. The U.S. Ambassador commented if you saw Yeltsin you stated your business and Yeltsin made a pronouncement, adding he never had a conversation with Yeltsin. The U.S. Ambassador said Putin was different, he talked to you as a person and we’d have a back and forth.

When Putin came to power he saw Russia as part of the European civilization. After the terrorist 9/11/2001 attacks in the U.S. Putin approved considerable assistance to the U.S., being criticized by some for getting too little in return. In 2023 we know things have dramatically changed. Short examines how this change evolved, placing a significant portion of the blame on the U.S. taking Russia for granted and U.S. hubris. While it is commonplace to speak of NATO expansion, Short sees the U.S. ending the anti-missile (ABM) treaty as potentially even more significant. I also found Short’s discussion of the U.S.’s purported justification for placing a missile defense capability in ex-Warsaw Pact countries revealing. I recall hearing the justification that the U.S. needed to station missiles in Poland, etc., to counter the missile threat from Iran and North Korea, not Russia. I, as I suspect many others, took that at face-value without thinking too hard about the matter, having a general interest in foreign affairs but applying more critical analysis to domestic economic and socio-political affairs. Short’s analysis made me see how absurd that rationale was; are we really to believe missiles in Poland will help deter a missile threat from North Korea? Offering that rationale to Putin suggests the U.S. saw Russia as a 2nd rate power which could be ignored and was unworthy of respect.

In the “West” it has become increasingly common to evaluate leaders simplistically based on whether he or she “is a good person” – essentially meaning whether the leader conforms to the range of actions the observer views as morally acceptable. Mr. Short notes Putin was trained in the law in Russia; at least during his first two Presidential terms he may well have believed in a form of the rule of law other than “the law is what I say it is,” or “I will do what we can get away with;” the issue, however, was whose “rule of law.” Clausewitz said war is the continuation of policy by other means. To what extent, however, is “law” a continuation of policy by other means? The “law” in many Western countries may be based on values or societal objectives that are not shared in Russia. Indeed, while not being at all sympathetic towards Putin or his invasion of Ukraine, many people in Western democracies appear to be getting increasingly fed up with “law” that treats group conduct designed to intimidate or greatly inconvenience (e.g. climate activists disrupting traffic) as mere “peaceful protest.” Indeed, that type of frustration may explain why some who tend towards the political right in Europe – the AFD in Germany and the National Rally in France – are more reserved in condemning Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine than they otherwise would be.

I give this book the highest recommendation.
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Alexia
1.0 out of 5 stars The book cover was damaged on the front and back
Reviewed in Australia on January 23, 2023
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Alexia
1.0 out of 5 stars The book cover was damaged on the front and back
Reviewed in Australia on January 23, 2023
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CBS
4.0 out of 5 stars Deep Biography, but Too Equivocal
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2023
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This is a very good biography of Vladimir Putin: thorough, readable and balanced. It presents an excellent and detailed insight into Putin’s formative years. We learn at least something as to what he is like as a person, what makes him tick and why he acts as he does. In the current (early 2023) context, this may be the most valuable attribute of the book.

Putin: His Life and Times appears to be very largely neutral: it does not proceed from pre-conceived assumptions of Mr Putin’s corruption or criminality. It carefully and explicitly considers all the evidence surrounding any particular question of wrongdoing, only then coming (but not always) to a verdict. It takes some care to avoid pro-Western bias and assumptions of Russian bad faith. And it is therefore very much worth a read, in part as corrective to some of the slant we get on the Western side.

At 672 pages in its hardcover format, Putin… is a big book. It is set out in 18 chapters that proceed chronologically from Putin’s youth in Leningrad/St Petersburg (“Baskov Lane”) to early 2022 and the opening stages of the Russian attack on Ukraine (Chapter 18 is somewhat questionably called “The Endgame”). The Afterword tries in retrospect to determine the cause of the deterioration in Russia’s relations with the West post 2000, and to anticipate future direction.

Putin was born and grew up in a tough, poor environment. He was clever but sullen, with tendencies toward local gangs and street-fighting. Wisely, he diverted this energy into athletic pursuits, most notably into ‘sambo’, a Russian variant of judo, and judo itself. Through keen application at both, he rose to the level of regional and Soviet champion. Throughout his life, and up to the present, Putin has accorded great importance to his personal physical fitness, both as an aspect of his image to the Russian population, and as necessary for his health and effective exercise of power.

Interested in history but not matters technical, he studied law (or what passed for law, and its interpretation, in the Soviet Union), and was assigned a second-order job in the KGB – he was not, and knew he was not, a “high flyer”. Starting with the KGB in 1975, he passed three ‘blank’ years (1977-1979) that not even Mr Short is able to penetrate. He ended up assigned, as was his ambition, to a foreign intelligence posting – but it also was second-order: to East Germany, not to a Western country. In Dresden, he carried out not-very-demanding work up to the 1989 implosion of Communism. He was moved back to Moscow in early 1990. During this time, Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva and fathered two children but it is clear that he was not inclined to or good at close relationships. He was an introverted, closed, character bent on maintaining secrecy and avoiding display of emotion. He was intrinsically shy. He had a formal, articulate, almost literary mode of speech and public presentation marred by occasional (probably deliberate and calculated) outbursts of alarming verbal vulgarity and thuggery. He believed in never backing down in a conflict; always see it through to the (victorious) end. The streetfighter would out.

Putin regarded the 1991 collapse and dissolution of the USSR as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. It was the formative dislocation of his life. In St Petersburg, Putin became an associate of Anatoly Sobchak, soon to become the city’s mayor. He stayed with Sobchak through the ‘wild 1990s’ of unrestrained, and often criminal, conversion of Russia to capitalism. He himself became Deputy Mayor of St Petersburg, and was a (relatively) ‘clean’ bureaucrat, in contrast to the corruption that surrounded him. During this time, Putin learned what he needed to know – about business and management of people – to attain and maintain power. Boris Yeltsin was President of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 2000. His tenure was mostly conciliatory toward the West and mainly democratic in character but, where he thought it necessary, he maintained his hold on power using violence (e.g. the 1993 attack on the Russian White House) and rigging elections. Mr Short sees the election of 1996, which Yeltsin ‘won’, as the irrevocable turning-point of Russia away from Western-style liberalism and toward authoritarian rule. Yeltsin spotted the loyal Putin, elevating Putin as his hand-picked successor in preference to a number of more-prominent candidates. Putin assumed the Presidency in 2000.

Putin’s opening moves were also democratic in character and friendly toward the West, where he was initially seen as an enlightened Russian leader. But he was also corrupt from the outset: more accurately, acquiescing in the bribes, kickbacks, threats and violence always endemic to the Soviet and Russian systems. He was influenced by the Russian Idea of Ivan Ilyin: what Russia needed was a balance – particular to Russia – between authoritarianism and liberal democracy. Putin’s enlightened front masked an authoritarian core. Through all this, we see Putin’s personal characteristics: penchant for humiliation of political opponents; long memory and need for revenge (e.g. Litvinenko, Skripal); indifference to human life (e.g. Chechnya, the Kursk submarine disaster, and the 2002 Moscow theatre siege); acting through others and leaving “no fingerprints”; and acting the “good Tsar” to his subordinates’ “bad boyars”. For Putin, deniability was always crucial. He governed Russia through the “power vertical” – a top-down authoritarianism – freedom being allowed within limits defined by the government.

The material lot of ordinary Russians improved markedly during Putin’s first two terms (2000-2004, 2004-2008) as President, in particular by comparison to the hungry 1990s. Oil and other commodities were the main international revenue-earners of the Russian economy. Putin emphasised the need for Russia to move toward advanced manufactured goods and services – the mark of a modern economy. But this aspiration was at least partly a victim of systemic corruption and nothing much came of it. Modernisation of the Russian military, by recent evidence, has been hampered by some of the same problems. Still, on the back of increased affluence, Putin’s popularity ratings remained at very high levels – often above 80%. He and the political parties with which he was associated in the main won their elections fairly – or, at least, would have won even in absence of the irregularities that did occur.

The turning point came in 2007, on the occasion of the Munich Security Conference. Putin accused the US of trying to dominate the world with its legal system; also of excessive use of force in international affairs. US ‘exceptionalism’ and its consequences were unacceptable to Russia. Mr Short asserts that “America, the dominant global power, believes that its role is to lead. Russia refuses to be led.”. Since then, it has been mostly downhill. Legally not allowed to serve a third Presidential term, Putin somewhat cynically interchanged roles with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for the period 2008-12. Facing down internal popular protests, he was re-elected President in 2012 and 2016. In 2018, he ‘fixed’ a change to the Russian Constitution that set the count of Presidential terms already served to zero – thus allowing Putin to stay in power potentially to 2036. Through his third and fourth terms, Putin’s rule became sharply more authoritarian. There was also new emphasis on the place of religion, in the form of the Orthodox Church, and on ‘traditional’ Russian values including attitudes to patriotism, sexuality and gender.

The 2014 Russian takeover of Crimea and of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine were a surprise and relatively bloodless. Ukraine’s integrity was ‘assured’ by the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, pledging respect for Ukraine’s 1991 borders, to which Russia is a signatory. Unprepared first time round, Ukraine was not caught out a second time. With some success, it foresaw and countered Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The ensuing war (Mr Short’s account only runs to April 2022) has been a vicious, bloody affair without any end currently (April 2023) in sight. Putin’s internal rule in Russia has become that of a dictator, with all internal resistance and dissent crushed.

Philip Short’s biography of Putin gives a probably unprecedented view of Putin’s life and times, in particular since the fall of the USSR. It covers the uncertain and anarchical post-Soviet period in the 1990s, showing the approach of Russia to friendship and integration with the West. It then graphically depicts the divergence. It is explicit about allegedly hypocritical Western actions: the 2003 Iraq invasion, eastward expansion of NATO contrary to verbal assurances given by leading figures, and the 2011 intervention in Libya – among others. At the same time, it presents a frank personal picture of Vladimir Putin. Philip Short has a long background as a BBC Foreign Correspondent; he does try, throughout this book, to be impartial.

In his “Notes on Sources”, at the end of this big book, Mr Short refers to three “recent accounts” of Putin’s life. They are good, he says, but “all three need to be read with care, for they set out the case for the prosecution and, like all prosecutors, the authors select their evidence accordingly.” And this is where, for me, a suspicion was confirmed that Mr Short simply goes too far with his even-handedness. In short, he pulls his punches. Many times, in the book, he calls Putin a liar. But he almost never ‘calls out’ Putin as responsible for events to which Putin was at least in close proximity. From Putin’s interview in 2021 with Keir Simmons of NBC (p641 of the hardcover):

[Simmons:] “Let me give you some names. Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead. Aleksandr Litvinenko, poisoned by polonium. Sergei Magnitsky, allegedly beaten and died in prison. Boris Nemtsov, shot moments from the Kremlin… Mikhail Lesin, died of blunt trauma in Washington D.C. Are all these a coincidence, Mr President?”

To this might be added questions concerning the fate of Sergei Skripal, the attempted murder of Aleksei Navalny and the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

In these and many other matters, Mr Putin relies on deniability. Mr Short gives him something of a free pass. Whether about these, or about the inexcusability of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Mr Short, in my view, needs to get off the fence. To understand must not be to absolve.

These reservations notwithstanding, this is a very good book that presents a deeply researched and highly readable account of the life of one of the pivotal figures of our time. If it contributes to increasing understanding in the West of the forces driving Russia, and of how to respond, it will have served an important purpose. Recommended.
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