Masha Gessen, Moscow-based journalist, is the author of the new book, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. Drawing on previously untapped sources, she presents a portrait
of a ruthless politician underestimated by friends and enemies alike,
who has dismantled his nation’s democratic and free market reforms in
order to establish himself as totalitarian leader of the “new Russia.”
The book was the talk of the 2011 Frankfurt Book Fair due to its
provocative and closely guarded material. Publishers Weekly said,