Putin: The explosive and extraordinary new biography of Russia’s leader

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The way he unpicks this is marvellous, and is a subtle and unusual approach to that part of the world that confounds our expectations and stereotypes.

There is the rant about Estonia to the British ambassador or former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s magnificent record of Putin’s “violent diatribe” over Georgia and its leader, who should be “hung by his balls”. My Vodka Politics book takes a deep dive into Russian history but is ultimately focussed on better understanding contemporary social, economic, and political developments in Russia, where Putin and Putinism are at the core. The raging question in the world today is who is the real Vladimir Putin and what are his intentions. I have advised the US State Department and the British Foreign Office on referendums around the world – and written several books on democracy.From good friends to politicians, important bureaucrats, and oligarchs—and in many cases, the lines between those categories are very much blurred. Immanuel Kant's views on politics, peace, and history have lost none of their relevance since their publication more than two centuries ago.

What Putin Really Wants” is a perennial topic for cable news debates and big-think magazine covers; the new invasion of Ukraine has prompted questions about the Russian leader’s mental health and pandemic-era isolation. Russia’s war against Ukraine is something that has touched me personally and professionally in the most profound way: witnessing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has been heartbreaking. The shadow of that has lingered, and it’s only now with new generations coming into the workplace that it has begun to change.I then worked as a financial journalist, so I was writing about Russian companies and the economy, and about natural gas, which is obviously central to the economy. The sense of good will soon evaporated, and the illusion that Putin was a Western-oriented modernizer was shattered. The great lesson of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was the danger of misreading the statements, actions, and intentions of the adversary. But when he argues that “responsible socio-political forces” should build the strategy for Russian renewal, it is pretty obvious whom Putin has in mind. I'm an experimental social psychologist and Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.