"A revelatory, behind-the-scenes acount of Rusian-American relations from the optimistic days of the end of communism in the Reagan-Gorbachev era to the confrontational era of Putin. In 2008, when Michael McFaul was asked to leave his perch at Stanford and join President-elect Barack Obama's national security team, he had no idea that he would find himself at the beating heart of one of today's most contentious international relationships. Obama wanted his guidance because McFaul had been studying and visiting Russia--and teaching Stanford students about it--for decades. He was there during the Gorbachev regime, he watched as Yeltsin faced down a military coup and as tumultuous reform swept the country throughout the 1990s, and he became one of America's preeminent scholars on Russia during the first Putin era. During President Obama's first term, McFaul helped craft the policy known as 'Reset,' which fostered new and unprecedented collaboration between the two countries under Dmitry Medvedev's presidency. Later, as U.S. ambassador from 2012 to 2014, he witnessed firsthand how Vladimir Putin's new rise interrupted this era of cooperation and returned Russian-American relations to a level of confrontation not known since the darkest days of the Cold War. From the outset of his ambassadorship, the Kremlin accused McFaul of being sent by Obama not to continue the Reset but instead to foment revolution against Putin's regime. This inside account blends history and memoir--from Putin's dacha to ornate Kremlin chambers to the Oval Office--to explain how Russia really works, and why America has entered into a dangerous new era of confrontation with Putin's Russia."--Dust jacket.