Putin

By: Philip Short

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Brought to you by Penguin.

Vladimir Putin is a pariah to the West.

Alone among world leaders, he has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm and has threatened to do so. He invades his neighbours, most recently Ukraine, meddles in Western elections and orders assassinations inside and outside Russia. The regime he heads is autocratic and corrupt.

Yet many Russians continue to support him. Despite Western sanctions, the majority have been living better than at any time in the past. By fair means or foul, under Putin's leadership, Russia has once again become a force to be reckoned with.

Philip Short's magisterial biography explores in unprecedented depth the personality of its enigmatic and ruthless leader and demolishes many of our preconceptions about Putin's Russia. Since becoming president in 2000, his obsession has been to restore Russia's status as a great power, unbound by Western rules. What forces and experiences shaped him? What led him to challenge the American-led world order that has kept the peace since the end of the Cold War?

To explain is not to justify. Putin's regime is dark. He pursues his goals relentlessly by whatever means he thinks fit. But on closer examination, much of what we think we know about him turns out to rest on half-truths.

This audiobook is as close as we will come to understanding Russia's ruler. It also makes us revise long-held assumptions about the course of global politics since the end of the Cold War.

©2022 Philip Short (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Amazing listen to comprehend and debunk the fabric of contemporary Russia and its undisputed leader.

Amazing listen to comprehend and debunk the fabric of contemporary Russia and its undisputed leader. Told in an objective fashion, without a hint of Russophobia as most of the revisionist histories of russia these days, this is a remarkable account of the context that made Putin. Philip short is a historian powerhouse.

Very interesting book about recent Russian History

This book was very interesting and quite balanced too in that it doesn't paint Putin as either a saint or a devil. As a recent history of Russia it was very interesting especially the parts about the struggle against Chechen islamic terrorism and the sinking of the Kursk. At the end it lost me a bit because of the way it repeated the obvious nonsense of western propaganda about what is going on in Ukraine and Democrat lies about Donald Trump and the Covid hoax. But still a good read in the end.