Hillary Clinton airs insider’s take on world leaders

After visiting 112 countries in her four years as top diplomat, Hillary Clinton sheds light on her dealings with power players, Russia, China, Iran, at the heart of some of the world’s intractable problems

Russia’s Vladimir Putin remains “fixated” on reviving the Soviet empire, China’s Hu Jintao was “aloof” and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a “bellicose peacock,” Hillary Clinton dishes about key world leaders in her new book.

The former secretary of state presided yesterday over the closely-managed rollout of her new memoir, “Hard Choices,” which many observers interpret as an unofficial kickoff of her prospective 2016 presidential campaign.

After visiting 112 countries in her four years as top diplomat, Clinton sheds light on her dealings with power players at the heart of some of the world’s intractable problems and how her ties with them often set the tone in negotiations.

“The personal element matters more in international affairs than many would expect, for good or ill,” she writes. Among her most difficult relationships as America’s top diplomat was with Putin, with whom she had rocky ties after the failed U.S.-Russia “reset” at the outset of the Obama presidency.

“He’s always testing you, always pushing the boundaries,” she writes of Russia’s president, whom she described as an autocratic leader with an “appetite for more power, territory and influence.” In criticizing the Kremlin’s takeover of Crimea this year and its aggression in eastern Ukraine, Clinton warned such moves could backfire against a country already saddled with a sputtering economy.
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