Too often, we are told that Russia plays a weak hand well. But, perhaps the nation’s cards are better than we know. Russia ranks significantly behind the U.S. and China by traditional measures of power: GDP, population size, over-all health, and military might. Yet 25 years removed from its mid-1990s nadir following the collapse of the USSR, Russia has become a supremely disruptive force in world politics. Kathryn Stoner, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, professor of political science (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and incoming Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law assesses the resurrection of Russia and argues for looking beyond traditional measures of power to assess Russia’s strength in global affairs. Accounting for how Russian domestic politics under Vladimir Putin influences its foreign policy, Stoner explains how Russia has battled its way back to international prominence.