From my perspective, all writers have made an important contribution, but I tend to favor the view of Putin presented by Rutland, Herspring and Collins. Putin is neither ideologically driven, nor a mere opportunist, nor a Soviet throwback. He has shown himself to be remarkably pragmatic.

Peter Lavelle is an independent Moscow-based analyst and the author of the electronic newsletter on Russia "Untimely Thoughts" (untimely-thoughts.com). He would like to thank Chris Doss, the great wordsmith, for his gracious review of this text.)