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.

Reviews

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