7 Pillars of Putin’s World: New Book Shows US Policymakers Russia as It Is

by Nikolas K. Gvosdev | RussiaMatters

American officials who profess to have been caught off guard when Russia initiated a military intervention in Syria in 2015—or when Russian military personnel arrived in Venezuela in March 2019—need to get a copy ASAP of Angela Stent’s “Putin’s World.” For all the hand-wringing in Washington about Russian strategic unpredictability or the opaqueness of decision-making within the Vladimir Putin administration in order to justify why the U.S. foreign policy apparatus seems to be continually surprised by Russian actions, Stent’s book clearly lays out Russia’s strategic imperatives as well as the cognitive mindset of Putin and his close associates to present a coherent, compelling analysis of contemporary Russian behavior in the world. Stent, arguably the doyen of America’s diminishing cadre of scholar-practitioners who both understand Russia and the U.S. national security decision-making process, is well positioned to help clear up the confusion. Continue Reading