Mr. Putin

Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy set out to answer the question Western leaders kept getting wrong. Who is Vladimir Putin? Their answer is a composite of six identities, including the statist, the history man, the survivalist, and the case officer, each rooted in his Soviet formation and KGB career. Written by two Brookings scholars, one of whom later served on the US National Security Council, the book remains the standard analytical portrait of how Putin thinks and why he acts as he does.