The New Tsar

The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin

Steven Lee Myers

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781471130649
• eBook ISBN:
  9781471130656
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The epic tale of Vladimir Putin's path to power, as he emerged from obscurity to become one of the world's most important and dangerous leaders.

Former New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief Steven Lee Myers has followed Putin since well before the recent events in the Ukraine, and gives us the fullest and most engaging account available of his rise to power. A gripping, page-turning narrative about Russian power and prestige, the book depicts a cool and calculating leader with enormous ambition and few scruples. As the world struggles to confront a newly assertive Russia, the importance of understanding Putin has never been greater.

Vladimir Putin rose out of Soviet deprivation to the pinnacle of influence in the new Russian nation. He came to office in 2000 as a reformer, cutting taxes and expanding property rights, bringing a measure of order and eventually prosperity to millions whose only experience of democracy in the early years following the Soviet collapse was instability, poverty and criminality. On the other, Putin has ushered in a new authoritarianism - unyielding in its brutal repression of dissent and newly assertive politically and militarily in regions like Crimea and the Middle East. 

The New Tsar is a staggering achievement, a deeply researched and essential biography of one of the most important and destabilising world leaders in recent history, a man whose merciless rule has become inextricably bound to Russia's foreseeable future. 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Epigraph page
• Contents
• PART ONE
• Maps
• CHAPTER 1 Homo Sovieticus
• CHAPTER 2 A Warm Heart, a Cool Head, and Clean Hands
• CHAPTER 3 The Devoted Officer of a Dying Empire
• CHAPTER 4 Democracy Faces a Hungry Winter
• PART TWO
• CHAPTER 5 The Spies Come In from the Cold
• CHAPTER 6 Mismanaged Democracy
• CHAPTER 7 An Unexpected Path to Power
• CHAPTER 8 Swimming in the Same River Twice
• CHAPTER 9 Kompromat
• CHAPTER 10 In the Outhouse
• PART THREE
• CHAPTER 11 Becoming Portugal
• CHAPTER 12 Putin’s Soul
• CHAPTER 13 The Gods Slept on Their Heads
• CHAPTER 14 Annus Horribilis
• CHAPTER 15 The Orange Contagion
• CHAPTER 16 Kremlin, Inc.
• CHAPTER 17 Poison
• CHAPTER 18 The 2008 Problem
• PART FOUR
• CHAPTER 19 The Regency
• CHAPTER 20 Action Man
• CHAPTER 21 The Return
• PART FIVE
• CHAPTER 22 The Restoration
• CHAPTER 23 Alone on Olympus
• CHAPTER 24 Putingrad
• CHAPTER 25 Our Russia
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
• A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• A NOTE ON THE TYPE
• List of Illustrations