Vladimir Putin is a pariah to the West. He has the power to reduce the West to nuclear ashes. He invades his neighbours, meddles in western elections and orders assassinations. His regime is autocratic and corrupt. Yet many Russians continue to support him.

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 Russia's leader and demolishes many of our preconceptions about Putin's Russia. To explain is not to justify.

Putin's regime is dark. But on closer examination, much of what we think we know about him turns out to rest on half-truths. This book is as close as we will come to understanding Russia's ruler.