num_pages: 592
description: A riveting immensely detailed biography of Putin that explains in full-bodied almost Shakespearian fashion why he acts the way he does. Robert D. Kaplan The New Tsar is the book to read if you want to understand how Vladimir Putin sees the world and why he has become one of the gravest threats to American security. The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current presidentthe only complete biography in English  that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.In a gripping narrative of Putins rise to power as Russias president Steven Lee Myers recounts Putins originsfrom his childhood of abject poverty in Leningrad to his ascension through the ranks of the KGB and his eventual consolidation of rule. Along the way world events familiar to readers such as September 11th and Russias war in Georgia in 2008 as well as the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine are presented from never-before-seen perspectives. This book is a grand staggering achievement and a breathtaking look at one mans rule. On one hand Putins many reformsfrom tax cuts to an expansion of property rightshave helped reshape the potential of millions of Russians whose only experience of democracy had been crime poverty and instability after the fall of the Soviet Union. On the other hand Putin has ushered in a new authoritarianism unyielding in his brutal repression of revolts and squashing of dissent. Still he retains widespread support from the Russian public.The New Tsar is a narrative tour de force deeply researched and utterly necessary for anyone fascinated by the formidable and ambitious Vladimir Putin but also for those interested in the world and what a newly assertive Russia might mean for the future. 
language: English
title: The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
publisher: Knopf