New York Times Correspondent and Putin Biographer to Speak at Penn State

The author of a widely acclaimed biography of Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak and hold a book signing at the Katz Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Steven Lee Myers, a 26-year veteran of the New York Times and author of ‘The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin,’ will speak at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 7, in the Katz Building’s Sutliff Auditorium. That will be followed by a book signing at 7 p.m. in the Katz lobby. The event, hosted by Penn State Law and the Penn State School of International Affairs, is free and open to the public, but attendees are asked to register online.

Scott Sigmund Gartner, director of the School of International Affairs, will moderate the discussion, and Myers will take questions from the audience. Myers is expected to talk about Putin’s unexpected appearance in Russian politics and his rapid rise to power, as well as ‘how his background shapes his view of Russia and the world, the potential stability of his popularity and political regime, and his increasingly hostile relationship with the west,’ according to a release from the school.

Myers covers national security and foreign policy issues as a correspondent for the Times’ Washington Bureau, where he also has covered the George W. Bush White House and the State Department during the tenures of five secretaries, including most recently Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. He previously was a correspondent and bureau chief for the Moscow Bureau, reporting on Russia and other former Soviet republics. He has covered covered conflicts on the ground in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, and Kosovo.