Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the Uses of War

"Having saddled the tiger of militarized patriotism, Putin expertly made it trot in the right direction. But the animal required more and more meat; as it grew, it became harder to dismount."

In this gripping tale, Leon Aron, the author of the acclaimed biography Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life, shows how Vladimir Putin has refashioned Russian society in his own image, placing militarized patriotism front and center. Through hundreds of Russian-language sources and arresting images, Aron chronicles the emergence of the new Russia.

Riding the Tiger challenges the conventional idea of Putin's regime as a traditional autocracy, bolstered by propaganda, political manipulation, and repression. The book tells the story of how Putin shaped ordinary Russians' views of their country, their history, and their own selves. The fast-paced narrative is a crash course in the political and cultural history of Russia according to Putin, his vision of Russia's manifest destiny, and his role in fulfilling it.

In exploring Russia's recent past, Aron offers insights into Russia's future. He argues that Putin's actions, including the invasion of Ukraine, are driven by the Russian president's need to ensure his regime's survival, avenge the fall of the Soviet Union, combat the America-led West, and make Russia a superpower again. Thus, regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, war-or the threat of war-will remain his preferred means of holding on to power and recovering national glory.

Could Putin bring the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon in pursuit of those ends? At the close of the book, Aron offers a chillingly detailed scenario of how such a crisis might play out.