This is the first full biography of Putin and it is unlikely to be matched as a study of the man for some time. It is readable, judicious, critical but balanced, and focused on Putin the person, rather than on the Putin regime ... There is no ‘gotcha’ moment that explains Putin, no single childhood trauma or slight. Short builds up a picture of his character — enigmatic, a mixture of emotional coldness, fits of anger and epic grudge-bearing, and very much focused on himself — by telling his life story straightforwardly and without empty psychologising ... While Putin engages in deadly power games, his regime keeps ticking over. When Putin finally goes, this messy, corrupt, incompetent, and violent regime will live on after him for a long time as a problem for Russia and the world. There’s no better guide as to why this will be Putin’s fault than this exceptional book.
Although Putin stands accused of various forms of chicanery, Short almost always exonerates him, writing that much of what his critics have said about him is no more than hearsay or rumor...It is hard to say if Short is right in this compelling and nuanced biography ... Short does, however, have a dark story of deception to tell. He skillfully shows how Putin gained the confidence of Western leaders because of his criticism of the former Soviet Union, and because he welcomed foreign investment and seemed not all that concerned with the expansion of NATO — until, of course, he was ... As Short makes clear, the Russian military has never been able to fight a war without committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nothing Putin did earlier in his career, or now, has done much to mitigate war by atrocity.
... this new biography should be compulsory reading ... Refreshingly, Short, in this meticulous biography of a man portrayed elsewhere as a 21st-century monster, refuses to moralise, opting instead to lay out how Putin’s recent actions can be seen as the consequence of the 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The former BBC correspondent is at his best when pushing us to see the world from a Russian perspective ... Short relentlessly traces the journey Putin has taken in rejecting that 'peace', the Pax Americana, the unipolar world in which, according to Russia expert Strobe Talbott, then US deputy secretary of state, 'the US was acting as though it had the right to impose its view on the world' ... Short is too astute to indulge in easy post-event speculation about different outcomes. Instead, he charts the inexorable march away from the genuine more liberal aspirations of Putin’s early days to the harsh autocratic isolated tsar of recent years ... There is a blank evenness to Short’s prose, a steady accumulation of information built through intelligence and concentration on detail with emotions coiled tight, which makes this book a perfect mirror to its subject. He calls Putin a liar, regularly, but again and again he pulls back from laying direct responsibility on him for some of the more egregious acts. 'Hard to judge' or 'Nothing concrete suggests' and other such qualifiers litter his accounts of critical moments. Sometimes, they usefully temper the more extreme personal charges against Putin. Overall, however, they let him escape true responsibility, not for individual crimes, but for failing to transform Russia, instead reaching back to an arthritic mythical past, not forward to a different future ... The result is a step-by-step journey, whose penultimate chapter is a little surprisingly called 'The Endgame', hobbled by being published as the climax approaches, not after the event. Short, let alone history, has not had time to judge the success or failure of the latest horrifying act in Putin’s astonishing drive to make Russia great again.
... an exhaustively researched tome that plots Vladimir Putin’s path from the backstreets of 1970s Soviet Leningrad to the instigation of today’s catastrophic war in Ukraine ... More experienced Russia-watchers will find their eyebrows well exercised at this and other sweeping dismissals of well-founded suspicions about Putin ... A fine wordsmith, Short enjoys stretching his reader’s vocabulary ... as a chronicle of Putin’s public doings, the book is near faultless. It also includes some sharply worded insights, including into his abominable lateness ... Short’s pushback against lazy, convenient myth-making (he’s mad, he’s ill, he’s just a crook) is refreshing. However much we may loathe or fear the Russian leader, it is worth remembering that he is not a cartoon character but a real person ... Short’s search for balance makes him oddly incurious about the darkest side of Putin’s life. Worse, he draws false equivalences: between Putin and his critics, and more fundamentally between Russia and its justifiably nervous neighbours ... Short is particularly tone-deaf when it comes to Russia’s former colonies ... Small but annoying errors detract further from the book’s authority ... The book ends on a patronising, inaccurate and revealingly glib note ... Far from setting unreasonable expectations, outsiders have been lamentably indulgent towards Russia, and Putin. This author, sadly, is one of them.
... sprawling ... The book contains some new material based on extensive interviews, but much of this discussion will be familiar to people who have read previous books about Putin ... This portrait of Putin is more sympathetic than others. Short clearly respects Putin and what he has accomplished, and gives him the benefit of the doubt on many questions where we may never know the answer. Short blames the United States and, to a lesser degree Europe, for what has happened in Russia and for the breakdown in relations. He discusses Putin’s crimes but says the West has demonized Putin and Russia for too long. He also claims that Russia’s domestic policy has been heavily influenced by ties with the West, implying that the West is somehow guilty by association — but he never spells out how the West has affected those policies. In reality, the West has had very limited influence over Russian domestic politics since the Soviet collapse ... 'Whataboutsim' and moral equivalence between the United States and Russia suffuse this book. When Russia or Putin is accused of something, Short points to U.S. sins and failings.
... robustly researched ... Short leavens an essentially journalistic approach with revealing anecdotes, resulting in a comprehensive and highly engaging account.
Extensive research including interviews with acquaintances from childhood through adulthood, observers from multiple countries, and information regarding his family life flesh out as closely as currently possible the truths and lies that comprise the Putin mystique. Sketches of Russian life during the Brezhnev, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin eras put Putin’s obsession with regaining respect for Russia in context ... Short has written a remarkable biography, rich in facts and details, of Putin’s life and career. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in Russia, world history, biographies of world leaders, and current events.
... impressive yet disturbing ... Events in Ukraine will spur sales of this thick biography, but any praise is well deserved, as Short offers an insightful and often discouraging text on the Russian president ... Having read obsessively and interviewed almost everyone, Putin included, Short delivers a consistently compelling account of Putin’s life so far. Contradictions abound, and the author is not shy about pointing out frank lies from sources that include Putin as well as his enemies ... Required reading for anyone interested in global affairs.
... incisive and well-timed ... Short’s elegant prose conveys a trenchant view of post-Communist society that makes Putin a striking embodiment of Russia’s troubled soul. This is a must-read.
