“Even as a child, Putin would never give up—when thwarted, he doubled down.”

Putin Confidential

Eight questions with Philip Short, the author of a new Putin biography, on the Russian president’s early years—and what Bill Browder got wrong

By Jim Kelly

Philip Short has made a name for himself as a first-rate biographer of complicated leaders such as Mao Zedong and Pol Pot, but his best work yet may be his most recent book, titled simply Putin. Having worked in Moscow for many years for the BBC, Short is ideally qualified not just to explore the life of Vladimir Putin but to place him in the context of his times and Russian history. No reader will come away from the book without a deeper and more subtle understanding of what the reign of Putin means for the world now and for years to come. And the West, especially the United States, has good reason to worry. Short lives with his family in the South of France.

JIM KELLY: You begin your book with a detailed dissection of the bombings and attempted bombings that shook Russia in 1999, which the government blamed on terrorists but many still believe were engineered by Boris Yeltsin’s preferred successor, Vladimir Putin, as a way of frightening the population and consolidating power. You strongly doubt this, and rather than get into your reasons why, can you explain why so many are so adamant in suspecting Putin?