Vladimir Putin has officially resigned as president but continues to rule Russia in the role of prime minister. In the opinion of informed observers, he will leave his mark on the country for many years to come. Putin’s system remains unshaken, the power vertical reinforces the centralised state, while in the realm of foreign policy Russia, the energy superpower, strives to play a global role.
Alexander Rahr is Germany’s leading authority on Russia and its political elite; he meets Putin on a regular basis. In this, the fourth revised and updated edition of his biography on the statesman, he presents a penetrating analysis of the inner workings of the Kremlin, explaining the Putin phenomenon from a Russian perspective.
Alexander Rahr was born in 1959 in Taipeh and grew up in Munich. He is director of the Russian/Eurasia Programme of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. He was awarded the Federal Merit Cross in 2003 and is Honorary Professor at the Moscow State University for International Relations (MGIMO).