Russia’s current president Vladimir Putin seemed to have come from nowhere when he succeeded Boris Yeltsin in March 2000. It was as if he had taken the Kremlin by stealth. Perhaps using the skills he acquired as a senior officer in the KGB. In fact, Putin’s rise to prominence owes more to a combination of canny manoeuvring and good old-fashioned patronage.
Peter Truscott’s masterly and incisive biography sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic of modern leaders.