Russia’s “New Tsar”: Putin’s Reign is a New Chapter in a Very Old Book

In The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin, Steven Lee Myers presents a detail-oriented account of Putin’s rise from a “middling spy” to the face of modern Russia. Myers’ telling emphasizes the means, speed, and geopolitical context by which Putin asserted his power, and in so doing shaped the country’s nationalism. Rather than demonizing the Soviet system as Yeltsin had, Putin sought to build a new and stable Russia through inclusion by co-opting institutions and values that already existed in Russia. However, despite the merits of this pragmatism, Putin’s methods for state-building proved rife with contradictions.