From Chilly Warfare to Sizzling Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia

“A captivating and well timed account of the present disaster within the relationship between Russia and the US.” —
New York Occasions E book Evaluation

Putin would want an enemy, and he turned to probably the most dependable one in Russia’s current historical past: the US after which, by extension, me.

In 2008, when Michael McFaul was requested to go away his perch at Stanford and be a part of an unlikely presidential marketing campaign, he had no concept that he would discover himself on the beating coronary heart of one among right this moment’s most contentious and consequential worldwide relationships. As President Barack Obama’s adviser on Russian affairs, McFaul helped craft the US’ coverage often known as “reset” that fostered new and unprecedented collaboration between the 2 international locations. After which, as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, he had a front-row seat when this fleeting, hopeful second crumbled with Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency. This riveting inside account combines historical past and memoir to inform the total story of U.S.-Russia relations from the autumn of the Soviet Union to the brand new rise of the hostile, paranoid Russian president. From the primary days of McFaul’s ambassadorship, the Kremlin actively sought to discredit and undermine him, hassling him with techniques that included dispatching protesters to his entrance gates, slandering him on state media, and tightly surveilling him, his employees, and his household.

From Chilly Warfare to Sizzling Peace is an important account of probably the most consequential world confrontation of our time.