“The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin” with Steven Lee Myers
November 9th, 2016
Join the World Affairs Council for a discussion with Steven Lee Myers on his recent book, “The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin.”
Pre-event reception @ 5:30PM: Please join us prior to the program for networking and conversation, sponsored by Zegrahm Expeditions.
The formal program will begin at 6:00PM.
About the book:
In this gripping narrative of Putin's rise to power, Steven Lee Myers recounts Putin's origins--from his childhood of abject poverty in Leningrad to his ascent through the ranks of the KGB, and his eventual consolidation of rule in the Kremlin.
As the world struggles to confront a bolder Russia, the importance of understanding the formidable and ambitious Vladimir Putin has never been greater. On the one hand, Putin's many domestic reforms--from tax cuts to an expansion of property rights--have helped reshape the potential of millions of Russians whose only experience of democracy had been crime, poverty, and instability after the fall of the Soviet Union. On the other, Putin has ushered in a new authoritarianism--unyielding in its brutal repression of dissent and newly assertive politically and militarily in regions like Crimea and the Middle East. The New Tsar is a staggering achievement, a deeply researched and essential biography of one of the most important and destabilizing world leaders in recent history, a man whose merciless rule has become inextricably bound to Russia's foreseeable future.
About the speaker:
Steven Lee Myers has worked at The New York Times since 1989. He has focused most of his career on international affairs, covering the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House during three presidential administrations. He has covered conflicts in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq. He was a reporter embedded with the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and returned to Baghdad as a correspondent and bureau chief during the winding down of the American war from 2009 to 2011. He first traveled to Russia in 1998 and, beginning in 2002, has spent more than seven years based in Moscow. He has witnessed and written about many of the most significant events that have marked the rise of Vladimir Putin: from the war in Chechnya and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine to the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
About the moderator:
Jill Dougherty is an expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union. In her three-decade career with CNN she served as Foreign Affairs Correspondent, based in Washington, D.C.,where she covered the State Department and provided analysis on international issues. Dougherty previously served as U.S. Affairs Editor for CNN International; Managing Editor of CNN International Asia/Pacific, based in Hong Kong; and CNN's Moscow Bureau Chief and Correspondent.From 1991 to 1996 she was CNN White House Correspondent, covering the presidencies of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. In 2013-14 she was a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government where she pursued research on Russia’s mass media. Dougherty received her B.A. degree in Slavic Languages and Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and her M.A. from Georgetown University where she researched Russia’s soft power diplomacy.
The pre-event reception is sponsored by Zegrahm Expeditions