This is the Guardian.

Today,

understanding Vladimir Putin,

who he is and what he wants.

It's been more than two decades since Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

ascended the highest office of the largest country in the world.

And in all that time he's been in the public eye.

He's cultivated an image of a kind of larger-than-life caricature.

Very little is known about his personal life and that's by design.

The only thing we see is carefully choreographed

and designed to project a very frankly sexualized, masculine image of a

strong leader.

Sam Green is a professor of politics and director of the Russia Institute

at King's College London. He's also the co-author of Putin versus the people,

the perilous politics of a divided Russia.

Sam has been following Putin's career since the 90s when he worked as a journalist in Moscow.

Remaining inscrutable, right, making it impossible for us to really understand what his

personal interests might be, what his real instincts might be, what's really going

on inside his head, right, is an important part of how he feels, right? He stays in control.

Now, as the Russian President's war in Ukraine enters its third week,

and the humanitarian situation grows ever more dire,

the whole world is wondering, what is it that Putin really wants and how far will he go to get it?

...