The Russian democratic experiment continues under its third president, Vladimir Putin. Now in his fourth term, Putin was an unknown when he was handpicked by Boris Yeltsin to succeed him. The reserved Putin seemed the exact opposite of the loud, large, and unpredictable Yeltsin, but the former KGB spy also held strong convictions of how the country should be managed and where he wanted to stand on the world stage. Vladimir Putin, Third Edition traces the life of the Russian statesman, from his boyhood in the slums of Leningrad, to his service in the Soviet secret police, to his rise to the presidency and beyond. Crisp, full-color photographs and useful study features add to the scope of this biography.