McFaul was America’s ambassador to Russia rom 2012 to 2014, and he draws on both his first-hand experience with Putin and his decades of academic expertise as a leading Stanford Kremlinologist for this illuminating look at U.S.-Russia relations since 1989. While the period began with a promising thaw, and McFaul helped develop the Obama administration’s “reset” policy, intended to foster new collaboration between the two countries, Putin’s increasingly autocratic rule instead heightened tensions. As he charts Putin’s rise, McFaul considers whether his authoritarianism was inevitable; notes that Trump—more popular in Russia than at home—has advanced Putin’s goals in several ways; and points to signs of an American backlash against Russian interference in the 2016 elections as signaling a decisive make-or-break moment in the U.S.-Russia relationship.
