VLADIMIR PUTIN

A quick account of the rise and (perhaps) beginning of the fall of Russia’s current bête noire.

Allen relies largely on recent news stories for source material, and the general picture is a grim one—of “a dangerously unpredictable rogue leader” who rose to power at the head of a “party of crooks and thieves” to murder hostile journalists and meddle in the elections of his own and other countries until, having “poached Crimea,” he launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The author leaves off shortly after that invasion, with the war at “a bloody stalemate” and its promulgator sounding “dangerously unstable” and, according to a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, “unhinged” in public statements. Along with photos of Putin—from a deeply disturbed looking child to the present (but not the macho one of him riding a horse bare chested, though it’s mentioned in the narrative no less than three times)—images of bombed buildings, corpses, and memorial displays add suitably alarming visual notes. Readers wishing to dig deeper will find plentiful lists of print and online resources at the end.

Useful for assignments, though ongoing events are likely to give it a short shelf life.