Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin

A portrait of Vladimir Putin as an operator schooled by Russia's intelligence services, co-authored by Fiona Hill, the foreign-policy intelligence officer who later became the top Russia adviser on the US National Security Council, and Clifford Gaddy. Drawing on Putin's own interviews and the KGB worldview he never shed, the book argues he is best understood not as a conventional autocrat but as a 'operative' — of a company, a market, a state — running a long game against the West.

Cuban's recommendation — 'her book is a fascinating read' — comes from his habit of studying adversaries like market actors. The founder-relevant insight is supplied by Hill and Gaddy's method: understand the person you're negotiating with by their formation, not their current posture. Putin's intelligence training, his humiliation at the collapse of the USSR, and his sense of being encircled explain the moves he makes, the same way a founder must understand a competitor's incentives before predicting its behavior.