Entrepreneurs

Mark Cuban says this book about Vladimir Putin is 'a fascinating read'

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Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Dallas Mavericks basketball team, speaks at the 2017 South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, U.S., on Sunday, March 12, 2017.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Monday, billionaire technology entrepreneur Mark Cuban tweeted about a book on Putin that he calls 'a fascinating read.'

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The book, which was part of Cuban's reading list in 2017, is called ‘Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin,’ and is written by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. For those interested in reading up on the leader of Russia, the book delves into Putin's past and his mentality as the leader of one of the world's most powerful countries.

Cuban first read it, he told Politico, as part of an effort to "keep up with what’s happening around the world."

Co-author Fiona Hill is the top Russia expert on the Trump Administration's National Security Council, and was present in Helsinki, Finland, Monday as the two heads of state met for a wide-ranging and highly controversial summit.

First printed in 2013 and updated in 2015, Hill's book is "essentially a 500-page psychological profile of the Russian leader, from his early KGB years through his rise and rule at the Kremlin," according to a review by The Washington Post. "In this telling, Putin sees the United States as a malicious, incompetent and disrespectful power, an obstacle in his relentless effort to restore and expand the might of the Russian state."

Before joining the Trump Administration, Hill served as the director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the research group the Brookings Institution. Her co-author Clifford Gaddy also held a role at Brookings as a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program's Center on the United States and Europe.

Cuban is an avid reader, and says it is an important way to stay sharp. "Most people won't put in the time to get a knowledge advantage," Cuban writes on his blog.

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