EXCERPT
To know Putin is to know Russia is a common trope among Russia-watchers. But believing that just means you’ve fallen for what the Kremlin wants you to think.
Timothy Frye is author of Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia. He is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University and a research director at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His books include Property Rights and Property Wrongs: How Power, Institutions, and Norms Shape Economic Conflict in Russia and Building States and Markets after Communism: The Perils of Polarized Democracy. He lives in New York City. Twitter @timothymfrye