Essential reading to understand what is happening in the world today. The first comprehensive and up-to-date biography of Vladimir Putin – the manwhose decision to go to war in Ukraine has opened a new period in European history(Steven Lee Myers’ biography The New Tsar stops in 2014). To grasp what may liein store in the months and years ahead, it’s necessary to understand what led up tothis moment and what lies behind the Russian offensive. There are many books about Putin, but almost all are about his regime ratherthan the man himself. This book is the first to trace in detail the whole of his careerand to examine in depth his character traits and personality in order to try to answerthe existential question: what makes Putin act as he does? Philip Short spent eight years researching and writing this, including almost200 interviews in a dozen different countries, ranging from western statesmenwho dealt with Putin as President to former colleagues who worked with him at thestart of his career in St Petersburg; archival research in France, Germany, Russiaand the United States; the study of tens of millions of words of source material inRussian, Estonian, Finnish and all the major European languages. How did we get to now? Twenty years ago, Russia and America were allies in theWar against Terror. Putin declared that Russia’s place was with the West, NATO wasnot an enemy and if Ukraine became a NATO member, it wouldn’t be a problem.Today Russia and Ukraine are at war. Philip Short traces the story of the slow,inexorable decline from those promising beginnings to a catastrophic conflict whichmost Europeans – and most Russians – were convinced would never happen. This book – unlike most that have dealt with Putin – does not use anonymoussources. Every statement is verifiably backed up in voluminous footnotes. Short’sgoal is neither to demonize Putin nor to absolve him. It is to establish the facts –which are damning enough. Much of what we think we know about Putin is either wrong or flawed or restson half-truths and sweeping generalisations which, on closer examination, don'tstand up. That does not mean his regime is any less dark. But to assess his rule, andto understand why most Russians have continued to support him for so long, it isnecessary to know what is true and what is not, no matter how disturbing it may be.