Mark Galeotti is an expert on Russian politics and crime. He is a Jean Monnet fellow at the European University Institute, a non-resident fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He has published extensively on Russia. Galeotti’s latest book, We Need to Talk About Putin, argues that the Russian leader is widely misunderstood.

What is the biggest popular misconception about Vladimir Putin?

I think it is precisely that he runs everything. There is still this notion that he is some kind of James Bond super-villain. First, that’s just not the way the world is; also, he could be considered something of a lazy autocrat who sits back and lets others come up with all kinds of plans and stratagems of their own.

Why, then, do western analysts get him wrong?

In fairness, there are a lot of analysts who don’t, but insofar as they do, I think it’s for several reasons. One is that it’s a lot more comforting to feel you’re trying to get into the head of one particular man rather than try to comprehend all the different directions in which a variety of different players could take Russian policy. Second, Putin himself has contributed to this extraordinary myth. It’s funny, because in many ways he’s a rather drab figure. He has become the Rorschach ink blot in which everyone can invest their own fears and suspicions and come up with their own personal Putin.

What is the relationship between Russia and the former Soviet Union?

All countries resemble their past, to an extent. There are similarities in terms of the authoritarian system, the essential corruption of the elite and suchlike, but I think this is a country that has gone through some quite dramatic changes. First of all, it’s not ideological. The Soviet Union, however half-heartedly and haphazardly, did at least pretend that it had some grand global vision. But Russia is very much in a process of transition: it is moving, very slowly admittedly, into a more western pattern that is familiar to us. Therefore, what we’re seeing is not so much the growth pains of a new Russia as much as the dying pains of the Soviet Union.

Do you think both the left and right tend to view Russia through the lens of the cold war?

Yes, and I think it’s done in Russia just as much as in the west. What we see at the moment is a period of intense and sometimes quite vicious geopolitical competition, which is in some ways reminiscent of the cold war. But if you use that term it comes with all kinds of baggage. We need to accept that this is something new. On the right you have people harking back to eras of KGB; on the left we have people who believe sentimentally that Russia is some kind of socialist country, when in many ways it’s almost a rapacious caricature of late capitalism.

What are Putin’s key motivations?

They are essentially emotional. One of them is for his own security and, most importantly, legacy. It’s striking the extent to which he is trying to build his place within the grand march of Russian history. This is also a battle for respect. Time and again, what comes up is that Russia wants to be treated as a great power. And that is really the challenge, because in any objective terms Russia is not a great power.

You touch on the attempted assassination of the Skripals. What’s the appropriate response?

If one looks at Putin and his advisers, they think that not only is the west weak but also it has already made up its mind about Russia and they have very little to lose. A lot of this is prison yard posturing: you want to look so tough that no one messes with you. All we can do with Putin is try to contain him, but all he can do is exploit our weaknesses. We should be much tougher on the regime, while reaching out to ordinary Russians.

A lot of people would prefer to believe that it was Putin and not the American public who got Trump in the White House

How much influence do you think Russia had on the US elections?

I honestly feel that it’s been dramatically overplayed. I can understand why. A lot of people would prefer to believe that it was Putin and not the American public who got Trump in the White House. But I think the more we look at it, the more it’s clear that those three crucial states that really swung it for Trump were three states in which the Russians had done very little. Clearly, leaking the emails of Hillary Clinton helped shape the discussion. Of course the Russians will try, but the irony is the more we talk up their impact, the more power we give Putin. Arguably, we ought to be laughing at the Russians a lot more.

What will happen in Russia post-Putin?

That’s the question everyone in Russia is thinking about. I get the sense that this is a man who is bored and tired in the job. The minutiae of government are no longer of interest to him. His term of government will last until 2024. Although some people are talking about ways he could stay in power, I think he would like even before then to have found a successor, while giving himself a father-of-the-nation role. But my view is that history is not on Putin’s side. On the whole, ordinary Russian people, but also the Russian elite, do not want to be in some ideological crusade against the west. I am ultimately optimistic about Russia’s trajectory.

What books are on your bedside table?

Because much of my reading is about Russian politics, organised crime and terrorism tend not to be uplifting; for other kinds of reading I want escapism. I’m currently binge-reading George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels again, which are an absolute delight. The other one is The Longer the Thread, a thriller by two women who write under the name of Emma Lathen.

How do you decide what to read?

Reviews, to an extent, and now we’re all pawns of the Amazon algorithms. Because I travel a lot I read a lot of my stuff on Kindle. Talking to people, friends, it’s actually a nice topic to recommend books to people and be recommended by.

Which classic novel did you read recently for the first time?

It would probably be Kafka’s The Castle. I lived in Prague for two years until the middle of last year and I suddenly realised that I had never read that.

Which classic novel are you most ashamed to have not read?

I’m perfectly comfortable with my low-browness. In some ways I’m ashamed, to the extent that I am, that I pick up various classic novels and think: “No! This isn’t going to work for me.”

Is there a book that you expected to like and didn’t?

Game of Thrones. Could not stand it. I read a lot of science fiction. That just felt to me that you fed in Tolkien and half-a-dozen other authors to a computer. I haven’t watched the TV series.

What do you plan to read next?

I want to return to Russian fiction, because it’s a great way of getting back into a certain way of thinking. One is Boris Akunin’s The Death of Achilles and the other is Vasily Aksyonov’s The Island of Crimea.

• We Need to Talk About Putin: How the West Gets Him Wrong by Mark Galeotti is published by Ebury (£9.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99