In May 2012, the American ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, accompanied a senior White House official to a meeting with Vladimir V. Putin at the then-president-elect's country estate. Midway through the discussion, Putin turned directly to McFaul and berated him for trying to ruin United States-Russia relations. In “From Cold War to Hot Peace,” McFaul recalls wondering, “Why was one of the most powerful men on the planet so obsessed with an American diplomat?”
McFaul answers his own question in these pages. For while this is the only personal confrontation between the two men that he recounts, the wider battle between their opposing visions of international affairs dominates the book. This memoir tells a political story that is also personal: the story of a man who watches as his own lifelong efforts to promote cooperation and integration between America and Russia are undone by Putin himself.
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