A brilliant analysis of Putin's Russia and how Russians perceive their place in the modern world.How did Russia manage to emerge resurgent on the world stage and play a weak hand so effectively? Is it because Putin is a brilliant strategist? Or has Russia stepped into a vacuum created by the West's distraction with its own domestic problems and U.S. ambivalence about whether it still wants to act as a superpower? RUSSIA VERSUS THE WORLD book examines the complex panorama of the country's turbulent past and how it has influenced Putin and the Russians' understanding of their position on the global stage -- and their conviction that the West has tried to deny them their legitimate seat at the table of great powers since the USSR collapsed.This book looks at Russia's key relationships -- with the United States, China, Europe, NATO, Japan, the Middle East -- and with Russia's neighbors, particularly the fraught relationship with Ukraine. RUSSIA VERSUS THE WORLD will help Americans understand how and why the post-Cold War era has given way to a new world, in which Russia will have much to do with the United States' role in the world and even, as current politics demonstrate, their own lives.