“The Most Dangerous Man in the World”: The Life and Times of Vladimir Putin

On returning to Saint Petersburg, he shifted into high gear, first rising to become deputy mayor and then moving to Moscow, where an impressed Boris Yeltsin anointed Putin as his successor. As president, Putin consolidated his power by reining in the media and oligarchs. The media mogul Boris Berezovsky fled to London, and was later found dead, while Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of the oil giant Yukos, was consigned to Siberia.

Putin gradually replaced the oligarchs with his cronies from Saint Petersburg and the former KGB. However, he was never interested in real reform and Russia’s economy remains underdeveloped and deeply corrupt.

According to Short, Putin is driven by two concerns: his desire to restore Russia to its former glory and his disillusionment with an American-led world order. Putin frequently calls the collapse of the Soviet Union ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century’. He is particularly bitter about Russia’s loss of its ‘near abroad’, the former Soviet republics; the ‘color revolutions’ in Georgia and Ukraine; and NATO’s expansion.

Initially, Putin tried to build relations with the West, but once the political utility of Russia’s natural gas reserves became clear, the muscle-flexing began. Putin is convinced of Russia’s exceptionality and in 2011 told Vice President Joe Biden that while Russians and Americans resemble each other physically, ‘inside we have very different values’.

Short’s narrative is peppered with anecdotes. On a state visit to the United Kingdom, Putin complained to his aides about the pomp and ceremony, including having to wear tails to dinner with the queen. When Prime Minister Tony Blair was showing him the cabinet’s secure crisis meeting facilities, Putin noted: ‘You know how we deal with Islamic terrorists? We kill them.’

Short details the many political murders that have taken place during Putin’s time in office, from the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky to the former spy Aleksander Litvinenko and journalist Anna Politkovskaya. After an attempt to poison him failed, Putin’s principal rival Alexei Navalny is now languishing in jail.

Putin has moved to entrench himself in two stages. In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev, who was keeping the presidential seat warm for Putin after his first two terms, initiated a constitutional amendment extending the presidential term to six years. That allowed Putin to be re-elected until 2024. In 2020, a further amendment was approved removing the word ‘consecutive’ from the two-term limit and specifying that previous terms would not be counted. This allows Putin to be re-elected in 2024 and again in 2030.

Internationally cornered and with domestic support beginning to crumble, Putin’s next moves are a major concern. Short provides valuable insights into the mindset of Russia’s autocratic leader.

Robert Wihtol is an adjunct faculty member at the Asian Institute of Management.This article is published courtesy of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).