A Russian politician and former intelligence officer, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin held the post of president of Russia during the years 2000 to 2008. Since 2012, he has been in the government. Putin has fulfilled the role of prime minister twice before: first from 2008 to 2012 and again from 1999 to 2000. He becomes the longest-serving leader of Russia or the Soviet Union with a tenure of 25 years and 27 days, surpassing Joseph Stalin's 30-year stint.
Putin became a lieutenant colonel after sixteen years of service as an intelligence officer with the KGB. He departed in 1991 to seek political office in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he became a member of President Boris Yeltsin's administration in Moscow. His interim roles as head of the Federal Security Service and secretary of the Russian Security Council preceded his appointment as prime minister in August 1999. Just over four months after Yeltsin's resignation, Putin assumed the presidency and was promptly re-elected to a first term. His second term ended in 2004. Because you can't serve as prime minister under two different presidents in a row, Putin served under Dmitry Medvedev from 2008 to 2012. He won a reelection in 2018 after a divisive 2012 campaign that included demonstrations and allegations of fraud.
A combination of structural reforms and a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas allowed the Russian economy to grow at a rate of 7% per annum during Putin's first term in power. Putin also led Russia in a battle against Chechen insurgents, restoring federal control over the Chechen territory. While serving under Medvedev as prime minister, he oversaw a military conflict with Georgia and made reforms to the armed forces and police force. During his third term as president, Russia's actions caused a financial crisis and international sanctions as a result of its annexation of Crimea and several military incursions into eastern Ukraine. On top of that, he backed his pal Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war by authorizing a military invasion and actively sought out naval bases in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In February 2022, during his fourth year as president, Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, prompting international condemnation and stronger sanctions. After forcibly seizing four Ukrainian oblasts in September 2022, he announced a partial mobilization. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 for war crimes, stemming from his alleged criminal responsibility for unlawful child abductions committed throughout the war. In April 2021, after a referendum that permitted him to seek reelection again, he signed a constitutional amendment into law. This clause may potentially extend his term in office until 2036. March 2024 saw the extension of his time in office.
A cult of personality dictatorship has developed in Russia's political system under Putin's leadership. Under Putin's leadership, widespread corruption and human rights violations have occurred, such as the imprisonment and persecution of political opponents, the suppression and intimidation of independent media outlets in Russia, and the lack of fair elections. Numerous international organizations have consistently ranked Russia very poorly, including Transparency International, The Economist Democracy Index, Freedom House, and Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index.
Prior eras
Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Putina welcomed their son into the world on October 7, 1952, in the Soviet Union's Leningrad. They had three children altogether; he was the youngest. Spiridon Putin's grandfather was a personal cook for both Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin. Putin had two older brothers before him: Albert, who passed away in infancy in the 1930s, and Viktor, who was born in 1940 but died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the Nazi German Siege of Leningrad.
Russian President Putin's father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin
Maria Ivanovna Shelomova, Putin's mother
Putin's father, a Soviet submariner during his conscription in the 1930s, and mom, a Soviet factory worker, were both employed by the Soviet Navy. My dad was a member of the NKVD demolition unit when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. In 1942, upon his transfer to the regular army, he suffered a terrible injury. Russian forces invading the Tver region in 1941 killed Putin's grandma on his mother's side, and his uncles from that side disappeared while fighting on the Eastern Front in World War II.
Acquiring knowledge
Putin started his official schooling on September 1, 1960, at School No. 193 on Baskov Lane, which was close to his house. Out of 45 pupils in his class, he was one of the few who hadn't joined the Young Pioneers just yet. At the age of twelve, he began his sambo and judo training. Lenin, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels were his favorite authors to read in his spare time. Putin attended Saint Petersburg High School 281, where he participated in the German immersion program. He has no trouble giving interviews or presentations because he is fluent in German.
Putin, see also the '60s
Putin attended Andrei Zhdanov State University in Leningrad in 1970 and received a law degree in 1975. “The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law” was the title of his thesis. During his time there, he felt pressured to join the Soviet Communist Party, which he remained a member of until its demise in 1991. Anatoly Sobchak, a future co-author of the Russian constitution and an assistant professor of corporate law, happened to meet paths with Putin. Putin in Saint Petersburg and Sobchak in Moscow were both very influential on the careers of their respective employers.
From Saint Petersburg Mining University, Putin received a degree in economics in 1997 after finishing a thesis on energy reliance and its instrumentalization in foreign policy. His supervisor was Vladimir Litvinenko, who managed his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns in St. Petersburg. Igor Danchenko and Clifford Gaddy are Westerners who believe Putin plagiarizes. He lifted entire paragraphs from other publications, one of which being King and Cleland's Strategic Planning and Policy (Russian version). Balzer says, "The primacy of the Russian state in the country's energy sector is non-negotiable," echoing Olcott's views on Putin's thesis and Russian energy strategy. He brings up the point that any joint venture must have majority Russian ownership, particularly because BASF inked the Gazprom Nord Stream-Yuzhno-Russkoye deal with a 49-51 structure in 2004 (against the 50-50 split of British Petroleum's TNK-BP project, which was an older agreement).
Intelligence domain
Putin joined the KGB about 1980
Putin enlisted in 1975 and attended the 401st KGB School in Okhta, Leningrad. The Second Chief Directorate was his destination after completing his training. His next stop was the First Chief Directorate in Leningrad, where he was in charge of the foreigners and consular personnel. Yuri Andropov's Red Banner Institute in Moscow was Putin's destination for further training in September 1984.
In Dresden, East Germany, he was an undercover translator from 1985 until 1990. Putin acted as a go-between for the KGB and the Stasi secret police when stationed in Dresden, allegedly promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Putin was presented with the bronze medal for "loyal service to the National People's Army" by the communist East German leadership, according to the official Kremlin presidential site. Putin has made no secret of his delight with his performance in Dresden, bringing up an episode from 1989 when he struggled with anti-communist protesters attempting to seize control of the city's Stasi headquarters.
The Russian-American Masha Gessen said in their 2012 biography of Putin that "Putin and his colleagues were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB." Ex-Stasi chief Markus Wolf and Putin's former KGB colleague Vladimir Usoltsev both downplayed his role. In 2020, journalist Catherine Belton said that Putin used this downplaying to hide his links to the KGB and his support for the terrorist group Red Army Faction, whose members frequently sought sanctuary in East Germany with the assistance of the Stasi. Dresden, with its relative lack of Western intelligence services, was considered more suited to the "marginal" town position. An anonymous former RAF member claims that at one of these sessions in Dresden, the militants reportedly provided Putin with a list of weapons that were then transferred to the RAF in West Germany. Klaus Zuchold said that Putin attempted to entice the writer of a poison research study and oversaw the neo-Nazi Rainer Sonntag. Putin allegedly met with Germans who were looking for work in the wireless communications industry through an interpreter. Because he sent engineers he hired from Germany to Southeast Asia and then sent them back to the West, he grew fascinated by the region's wireless communications technology. They were never a member of the Royal Air Force, but a 2023 investigation by Der Spiegel revealed that the anonymous source was "known to have fabricated allegations" and had "several prior convictions," among other things.
Vladislav Putin's Stasi ID; he served as a liaison between the KGB and the Stasi in Dresden.
According to Putin's official biography, he allegedly stopped demonstrators—including KGB and Stasi agents—from stealing and burning documents from the Soviet Cultural Center and the KGB residence in Dresden during the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which began on November 9, 1989. The official authorities of the German government that aspired to be unified had the data preserved. Allegedly, he saved the Soviet Cultural Center's archives but burnt only the KGB materials within a few hours, according to the German authorities. Among the documents destroyed in the fire were those belonging to the Stasi and other Soviet and German agencies; none of these documents included details on the selecting process. He went on to explain that the abrupt furnace explosion was the only explanation for why Moscow acquired a mountain of KGB villa documents and Germany received a deluge of data.
Even though the KGB and the Soviet Army were operating in eastern Germany until the fall of the communist system, Putin was expected to step down from his position as an active KGB employee following the Berlin Wall's collapse, stemming from suspicions about his loyalty following the Dresden riots and earlier. Over the course of three months in early 1990, he served as a member of the "active reserves" at Leningrad State University's International Affairs section, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov, while he completed his research for his doctorate.
He maintained tabs on the student population, looked for new KGB recruits, and renewed his friendship with Anatoly Sobchak, a former professor who would go on to become Leningrad's mayor, while he was there. Putin stated that he resigned with the rank of lieutenant colonel on August 20, 1991, which was the second day of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Putin went on to say, "As soon as the coup began, I immediately decided which side I was on," with the caveat that he had spent his whole life around "the organs," which made the choice all the more difficult.
Political career
Russia during Putin's administration and Vladimir Putin's political career are primary references.
Further information: Vladimir Putin's speech list and Putinism
Also check out: politics in Russia
Managing Saint Petersburg from 1990 until 1996
In May of 1990, Leningrad mayor Anatoly Sobchak appointed Putin to the position of foreign affairs advisor. It was in 1991, following Mikhail Gorbachev's fall, that Putin departed the KGB. He was against the revolution and did not want to be associated with the new government's intelligence infrastructure, according to an interview he gave to Oliver Stone in 2017. Putin has hinted at or admitted to considering or even working as a private cab driver in 2018 and 2021, according to statements he made at the time.
Lyudmila Narusova, Putin's old mentor, and Ksenia Sobchak were present at the funeral of Saint Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.
On June 28, 1991, Putin took charge of the Committee for External relations in the Mayor's Office, which was responsible for facilitating international relations, attracting foreign investments, and registering business firms. A year after Marina Salye took office, her local legislative council started looking into Putin. For foreign food help that never materialized, he presided over the shipment of metals valued at $93 million by understating prices. Putin remained in his position as head of the Committee for External Relations until 1996 despite the fact that the investigators recommended his removal. From 1994 to 1996, he was involved in many other political and administrative roles in Saint Petersburg.
In March 1994, Putin became the first deputy chairman of Saint Petersburg. He founded the Our Home—Russia chapter in Saint Petersburg in May 1995, which was the pro-government, liberal, power party of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. From 1995 to June 1997, he was the party's chairman in Saint Petersburg, and he also managed the 1995 parliamentary election campaign.
Career in Moscow from 1996 to 1998
After losing his re-election bid in Saint Petersburg in June 1996 while campaigning for Sobchak, Putin stepped down from his positions in the city administration. A position as deputy chief of Pavel Borodin's department for presidential property management prompted him to go to Moscow. He served in this capacity until March 1997. As the head of state's foreign property department, he was responsible for approving the sale of CPSU and Soviet assets to Russia.
Vladimir Putin assumed the role of head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in 1998.
According to President Boris Yeltsin's nomination, Putin held the offices of head of the Main Control Directorate of the Presidential Property Management Department and deputy director of the Presidential Staff from March 26, 1997, until May 1998. Two of Putin's future important political partners, Nikolai Patrushev and Alexei Kudrin, were his predecessors and successors in this position. The status of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation was Putin's highest federal state civilian service award, which he obtained on 3 April 1997.
With the subject "Strategic Planning of the Reproduction of the Mineral Resource Base of a Region under Conditions of the Formation of Market Relations," Putin defended his economics candidate thesis at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute on June 27, 1997. Rector Vladimir Litvinenko presided over the defense. It was typical procedure for a young, rising official in Russia to write an academic essay while still in the midst of their career. Vladimir Putin's thesis had instances of plagiarism. The United States textbook had fifteen pages stolen, according to the Brookings Institution.
Vladimir Putin succeeded Viktoriya Mitina as the first deputy chief of staff for the regions of the Russian presidency on May 25, 1998. He took over for Sergey Shakhray as head of the president's federal center and commission on July 15th, in charge of negotiating agreements about the division of authority between regions. Under Shakhray's leadership, the panel finalized 46 such agreements; but, following Putin's appointment, the body failed to make any final decisions. Putin terminated all 46 agreements shortly after becoming president.
from 1998 to 1999: head of the FSB
On July 25, 1998, Yeltsin appointed Putin as director of the Federal Security Service (FSS). Successor to the KGB as Russia's primary intelligence and security agency is the Federal Security Service (FSS). Putin redirected the FSB's efforts as director, restructuring and fortifying the agency, after what appeared like years of deterioration following the Soviet Union's disintegration. During this formative era of his administration, he consolidated power, suppressed the opposition, controlled the flow of information, and strengthened state security.
Appointment of Putin as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) was followed by the probable premeditated murder of journalist Anatoly Levin-Utkin one week later. Levin-Utkin was looking into allegations of corruption that may implicate Putin.
the year 1999: my debut as premier
Moreover, the first cabinet of Vladimir Putin
Putin with President Boris Yeltsin during the press conference marking Yeltsin's November 30, 1999, resignation.
President Yeltsin appointed Putin interim prime minister of the Russian Federation Government on August 9, 1999, after Putin had served as one of three first vice prime ministers beginning on that day. Also, Yeltsin said that Putin should be Putin's successor. Putin also announced his candidacy for president later that day.
With 233 votes in favor on August 16, despite a simple majority of 226 being necessary, he became Russia's fifth prime minister in less than eighteen months. Few expected Putin, who was almost unknown to the general public when nominated, to serve as president for far longer than his predecessors. His supporters initially assumed he was just another Yeltsin ally. The presidential administration appointed Putin's cabinet members, as it had done with previous prime ministers under Boris Yeltsin. Putin had no say in the matter.
Their heroic efforts failed to avert Putin's ascent to power as a potential heir to Yeltsin, who was already unwell and surrounded by enemies. After the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 and the invasion of Dagestan by mujahideen, including former KGB agents based in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Putin swiftly gained an advantage over his opponents due to his law-and-order image and his dogged pursuit of the Second Chechen War.
As a result of Putin's pledge of support to the newly formed Unity Party, which received the second-highest vote total in the 1999 Duma elections—and Putin himself—despite the fact that Putin did not formally belong to any political group.
served during the 1999–2000 term as interim president
Major article: Putin's rise to power
The Russian Constitution formally designated Putin as interim president of the Russian Federation following Yeltsin's sudden departure on December 31, 1999. Following his appointment, Putin made the scheduled visit to Russian forces stationed in Chechnya.
Putin issued his first presidential decree on December 31, 1999, with the title "On guarantees for the former president of the Russian Federation and members of his family." Under this law, "corruption charges against the outgoing President and his relatives" would never happen. The bribery case involving Mabetex, which involved Yeltsin's relatives, was the most impacted. As a member of the Saint Petersburg municipal administration, Putin was one of the suspects in a criminal probe that was dropped on August 30, 2000.
Another case against the prosecutor general was dropped "for lack of evidence" on 30 December 2000, despite Swiss prosecutors having provided thousands of files. On 12 February 2001, Putin substituted a similar federal legislation for the 1999 decree. The case regarding Putin's alleged malfeasance in metal exports from 1992 led to Marina Salye's removal from Saint Petersburg and subsequent silencing.
Despite his opponents' plans to hold the first round of the 2000 presidential elections in June, Putin garnered 53% of the vote in the first round that took place on March 26, 2000. We had to put off the elections because Yeltsin had retired.
first term of the president, 2000–2004
Furthermore, refer to: the 2000 presidential campaign of Vladimir Putin
In May of 2000, during Putin's inauguration, Boris Yeltsin was there.
President Putin took the oath of office on May 7, 2000. His choice for prime minister was Mikhail Kasyanov, who had previously served as minister of finance. Russian President Vladimir Putin's reputation took a hit in August 2000 when claims surfaced that he had botched the response to the Kursk submarine disaster. A lot of people were upset because Putin required some time to recuperate from his vacation and much more time to go to the scene.
Rebuilding Russia's deteriorating infrastructure seems to have been Putin's goal after he and the country's oligarchs struck a "grand bargain" between 2000 and 2004. This agreement not only guaranteed the oligarchs' alignment with Putin's administration but also allowed them to retain a significant portion of their power.
The Moscow theater hostage crisis occurred in October 2002. A number of Russian and international media outlets have voiced their prior concerns that the loss of 130 hostages in the special forces' rescue operation would have a devastating impact on President Putin's popularity. Putin, however, received extraordinary levels of public support when the siege ended; 83% of Russians were satisfied with the way Putin handled the crisis.
Although it is legally a part of Russia, the Republic of Chechnya did acquire autonomy in a 2003 referendum that passed a new constitution. Chechnya has been steadily stabilizing thanks to parliamentary elections and the establishment of a regional government. Even though Russia was successful in putting an end to the Chechen rebel movement during the Second Chechen War, insurgent excursions into the northern Caucasus continued on occasion.
Session two, 2004–2008
Also check out Vladimir Putin's 2004 presidential campaign.
Among the foreign leaders seen alongside Putin at the May 9, 2005, Victory Day march in Moscow were Junichiro Koizumi, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroder, George W. Bush, and many more.
March 14, 2004, saw the re-election of the Russian president with 71% of the vote. During the Beslan school hostage incident that happened from September 1st to the 3rd, 2004, more than 330 people, including 186 children, died.
For over ten years following the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was in the grips of chaos until Putin ascended to power. According to Putin, the fall of the Soviet Union was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century" when he spoke at the Kremlin in 2005. Putin continued by saying that the outbreak of disintegration has struck the Russian administration. The country's extensive social safety net and life expectancy were both on the decline in the years preceding Putin's presidency. In 2005, the Russian government launched the National Priority Projects to improve the country's housing, healthcare, education, and agricultural infrastructure.
The president of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is currently facing criminal charges. According to foreign media, this is retaliation for Khodorkovsky's financial backing of anti-Kremlin liberal and communist organizations. At that time, Khodorkovsky was the richest man in Russia. The state-owned Rosneft acquired the largest interest in the company at a price below its actual market value after Yukos's bankruptcy and Khodorkovsky's imprisonment. Many saw Yukos' demise as a sign that Russia was moving closer to a state-capitalist economic model. Judgment of $50 billion in compensation to Yukos shareholders in 2014 by the Permanent Arbitration Court in The Hague served to emphasize this argument.
Murder took place in the lobby of Anna Politkovskaya's apartment building on 7 October 2006, which happened to be Putin's birthday. Politkovskaya had exposed corruption inside the Russian army and its activities in Chechnya. After Politkovskaya's murder, many people throughout the world criticized Putin of not protecting Russia's new independent media. Putin claims that her downfall was more problematic for the government than her writings.
Despite Angela Merkel's aversion to dogs, Putin brought his Labrador to meet with her in January 2007.
In January 2007, Putin met with German chancellor Angela Merkel at his Black Sea residence in Sochi. Russia had shut off oil supplies to Germany two weeks earlier. It was obvious that Putin's black Labrador Konni made Merkel uncomfortable, as she has a well-documented fear of dogs. Following this, Putin calmly told the German press corps, "I'm sure it will behave itself," which provoked extreme anger. Speaking on the incident in January 2016, Putin stated, "I wanted to make her happy" when asked about it by Bild, denying any awareness of her terror. When I found out that she didn't like dogs, I apologised without thinking. "I get it - he needs to show he's a man," Merkel told reporters later. His own fragility is the most anxious thing. Russia is politically and economically bankrupt. They own nothing else.
In April 2007, Putin, Lyudmila Putina, Clinton, and Bush attended the ceremonial funeral of Boris Yeltsin in Moscow.
During his speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2007, Putin voiced his disapproval of the United States' dominant geopolitical stance. In addition, he brought up the fact that a former NATO officer had given false assurances about not expanding into other Eastern European nations.
On 14 July 2007, Putin announced that Russia would suspend implementation of its obligations under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, effective after 150 days. This came along with Russia's ratification of the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, which NATO members rejected in anticipation of Russia's withdrawal from Transnistria and the Republic of Georgia. Moscow hoped that talks would lead to the establishment of a new conventional weapons control regime in Europe, so it kept its representatives in the joint consultative group. Russia did provide NATO a set of potential measures to end the ban. Members are cutting back on weapon allocations and making it harder to send temporary troops to any NATO country. Russian officials have also demanded that the amount of soldiers stationed on their southern and northern flanks be unrestricted. It also urges NATO partners to accept the Adapted CFE Treaty, a revised version of the 1999 accord, and requests that the four alliance states who were not initial parties—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia—join it.
In early 2007, members of the opposition group The Other Russia, including former chess champion Garry Kasparov and national-Bolshevist Eduard Limonov, organized "Dissenters' Marches." Following prior warnings, police responded to rallies in many Russian cities by barring demonstrators' movement and detaining as many as 150 people who attempted to cross police lines.
Putin dissolved the government on September 12, 2007, at the request of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. One reason for this, according to Fradkov, was to provide the president greater flexibility in the days before the parliamentary election. Viktor Zubkov became the prime minister of the Russian Federation. On September 19, 2007, Putin's nuclear-capable bombers flew near the United States for the first time since the Soviet Union's demise.
In the 2007 State Duma election, the ruling party that supports Putin's policies, United Russia, won 64.24 percent of the vote, according to early data. Many assumed that the December 2007 election victory of United Russia was proof that the Russian people genuinely supported the government's programs and leaders. During Putin's speech at Gazprom's 15th anniversary celebration on 11 February 2008, employees made threats to shut off supply to Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin warned George W. Bush and other conference delegates at the NATO Bucharest summit on 4 April 2008 that the presence of a strong military bloc on their border posed a direct danger to national security. Claiming that Russia is not the intended recipient of this process will not suffice. Words alone will not ensure a nation's safety.
Having served as premier from 2008—2012
The Medvedev-Putin tandemocracy and Vladimir Putin's second cabinet are related reading.
View: for further information on the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev:
Putin and Medvedev met in March of 2008.
There was a provision in the Constitution that said Putin couldn't be in power for three terms in a row. His elected successor is Dmitry Medvedev, the current First Deputy Prime Minister. A power-switching operation nominated Putin to the position of prime minister of Russia on May 8, 2008, just one day after he relinquished the presidency to Medvedev. He was able to maintain his political dominance thanks to this appointment.
Putin claims that addressing the aftermath of the global economic crisis was one of his two main achievements during his second premiership. Secondly, stabilizing the number of Russia's population from 2008 to 2011 was the other, following a protracted demographic slide that started in the 1990s.
In early 2006, Putin informed his staff about the imminent Russo-Georgian War, which he had anticipated. The war started in August 2008 and continued till the same month.
During Putin's reign, according to Andriy Kobolyev, a counselor to the CEO of the Ukrainian Naftogaz utility, the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine in 2009 occurred, and Putin commanded the Gazprom chessboard. Putin made the remark during a 2010 German trade show that if his visitors weren't interested in Russian nuclear power or natural gas, they could always use wood for heating, which would involve logging Siberia.
To run for president in 2012, Medvedev officially urged Putin to do so during the United Russia Congress in Moscow on September 24, 2011, and Putin accepted. Given the overwhelming influence of United Russia in Russian politics, many analysts anticipated Putin's re-election. The original intention was for Medvedev to run for prime minister as a member of the United Russia ticket in the next parliamentary elections in December, when his presidency concludes.
The largest protests that Putin oversaw took place following the parliamentary elections on December 4, 2011, when tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest what they perceived as electoral fraud. In their vehement denunciation of Putin and United Russia, the demonstrators demanded the nullification of the election outcomes. Protests sparked widespread anxiety that a color revolution was on the horizon. Allegedly, Putin formed a plethora of paramilitary formations loyal to the United Russia party and himself between 2005 and 2012.
President for a third term, 2012–2018
In 2012, Vladimir Putin ran for president as a vice presidential candidate.
A lot of people think that Nikolai Patrushev is Putin's trusted advisor.
Renewing the presidential term length from four to six years, which Medvedev adopted after his 2008 inauguration, became effective with the 2012 election.
On September 24, 2011, Medvedev said that he will propose Putin as the party's presidential nominee at the United Russia party congress. He went on to say that well before 2012, the two individuals had already planned Putin's presidential campaign. News organizations frequently used the Russian term for the chess move "Rokirovka" to characterize this shift.
In the 2012 Russian presidential election, Putin garnered 63.6% of the vote in the first round on 4 March 2012, despite many accusations of vote-rigging. Many in Putin's opponents' United Russia party have accused him of being a fake. Russian opponents and OSCE observers criticized the vote for procedural problems, despite the extensive attention around steps to promote election openness, such as the placement of cameras at polling stations.
Throughout and soon after Putin's presidential campaign, there were protests. Most notoriously, on February 21st, there was a Pussy Riot performance and trial. There were 450 arrests and 80 injuries as a result of skirmishes between police and the 8,000 to 20,000 demonstrators that swarmed Moscow on May 6. On the next day, 120 additional individuals were taken into custody. At Russia's largest stadium, Luzhniki, over 130,000 people, including supporters of Putin, assembled for a counter-protest. Some attendees felt pressured to come because of their employment, some were misled into thinking it was a folk festival, and yet others claimed to have been bribed. A lot of people think this is the largest Putin rally that has ever happened.
During the G8 summit in Ireland on June 17, 2013, Putin and Obama had a bilateral meeting.
Putin took the oath of office in the Kremlin on May 7, 2012. Known as the "May Decrees" by the media, Putin's first day in office saw the signing of fourteen presidential decrees. Russia has broad economic goals specified in one of these lengthy decrees. The Russian president's executive order addressed a wide range of policy areas, including housing, education, skilled labor training, relations with the EU, the defense industry, interethnic relations, and more, in addition to the decrees that were part of Putin's presidential campaign platform.
Saint Petersburg, Archangelsk, and Novosibirsk all passed anti-LGBTQ legislation in 2012 and 2013, with Putin and the United Russia party's support. Lawmakers in Russia's State Duma criminalized "homosexual propaganda" in June 2013. Putin responded to the international condemnation of Russia's new legislation by stressing that it was a "ban on the propaganda of pedophilia and homosexualit'y." He went on to suggest that the gay athletes competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics should "leave the children in peace," and he denied the existence of "professional, career or social discrimination" targeting Russia's LGBT community.
The All-Russia People's Front was founded in 2011, and Putin was elected president of the movement during a June 2013 televised ceremony. Steve Rosenberg of the Moscow Times reports that the movement's stated purpose is to "reconnect the Kremlin to the Russian people" and, if necessary, to supplant the United Russia party—which is gaining support from Putin but is losing support among Russian citizens—through time.
Conquering Crimea
Article focus: The Russian Federation's takeover of Crimea
The Normandy Accords, the Donbas War, the connections between Russia and Ukraine, the Minsk Agreements, and the Russo-Ukrainian War are all connected subjects.
European regions include Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and the Russian Federation
Putin took part in the Normandy Format meeting on October 17, 2014, alongside French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Russia invaded Ukrainian territory on various occasions in February 2014. During the Euromaidan protests and the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian soldiers without insignia took control of Crimean Ukrainian territory and captured important sites and infrastructure. Russia took Sevastopol and Crimea after a referendum in which the Crimean people reportedly decided to join Russia. The aggressor Ukrainian government and the Russian-backed separatists from the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics entered the Russo-Ukrainian War after pro-Russian demonstrations in Ukraine's Donbas area. Russian military vehicles crossed the border many times in August 2014 in Donetsk Oblast. The Ukrainian government placed the responsibility for their forces' defeat in early September on the Russian military incursion.
Putin addressed Russian security worries at his October 2014 speech at Sochi's Valdai International Discussion Club. According to the Ukrainian military, in November 2014, a large number of Russian soldiers and military equipment entered the rebel-controlled eastern areas of the nation. The Associated Press said that they observed 80 military trucks entering rebel-controlled area. An OSCE Special Monitoring Mission observed unmarked convoys of tanks and heavy weaponry in DPR-controlled area. Going even farther, OSCE monitors reported seeing what seemed to be relief convoys crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border with both live munitions and the remains of dead soldiers.
The OSCE counted about twenty-one vehicles with the Russian military designation for military casualties in early August 2015. Russian officials have reportedly attempted to silence human rights advocates who have spoken out against the massacre of Russian servicemen in the conflict, according to the Moscow Times. 'Combined Russian-separatist soldiers' prevented OSCE observers from accessing territories under their control, the organization repeatedly asserted.
In October 2015, a story appeared in The Washington Post suggesting that Russian elite soldiers had been sent from Ukraine to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Russian military intelligence officers were operating in Ukraine, as Putin acknowledged in December 2015.
The Moscow Times cited pro-Russian academic Andrei Tsygankov as saying that many outside observers saw Putin's invasion of Crimea as a sign that Russia's foreign policy had shifted dramatically, abandoning state-driven diplomacy in favor of an aggressive plan to reestablish the Soviet Union. In July 2015, he voiced the notion that Putin could be trying to shield nations inside Russia's sphere of influence from what he referred to as "encroaching western power" by changing policy in this way.
Intervention in Syria
Almost all of the articles focus on Russia's involvement in the civil war in Syria.
Relationships between Russia and Syria and international involvement in Syria's civil war are related subjects.
On September 29, 2015, Putin and Obama had a meeting in New York City to discuss Syria and ISIL.
Putin and Assad had a meeting in 2017.
On September 30, 2015, President Putin authorized Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war after the Syrian government publicly sought Russian military aid in combating rebel and terrorist organizations.
Russian military operations against terrorist organizations opposing the Syrian government included airstrikes, cruise missile attacks, advisors deployed to the front lines, and special forces from Russia. Included in this category were the Syrian opposition, the Army of Conquest, al-Nusra Front, Tahrir al-Sham, and Ahrar al-Sham. Russian forces stationed in Syria continued to support the Syrian government and conduct operations even after Putin announced on March 14, 2016, that the mission he had assigned to them had been "largely accomplished" and ordered the departure of the "main part" of those forces.
The 2016 US presidential election and Russian interference
News articles on Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and a timeline of events involving that election
Refer to: US-Russian Relations as well.
An assessment from the U.S. intelligence community in January 2017 stated with high certainty that Putin personally directed an influence operation, which later developed "a clear preference" for Donald Trump. The original goal was to undermine Hillary Clinton's credibility, defeat her in the election, and her potential administration. Putin and Trump both denied in July 2017 and March 2017 that Russia had any role in the US election.
Russian hackers acting in a patriotic manner may have been responsible for the intervention, which Putin finally admitted to. That "not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship" may have been responsible was his extreme implication. The New York Times reported in July 2018 that a Russian informant who had received long-term CIA help had become close to Putin. In 2016, the source provided vital material that directly implicated Putin. Putin maintained this strategy even while running for president in 2020.
Session four, beginning in 2018 and continuing until 2024
Also see: 2018 presidential campaign of Vladimir Putin
On January 21, 2020, the recently appointed prime minister meets with Putin, Mikhail Mishustin, and members of Mishustin's government.
In Russia's 2018 presidential election, Putin received about 76% of the vote. He assumed office as governor on May 7, 2018. On the same day, Putin invited Dmitry Medvedev to lead a coalition administration. On May 15, 2018, Putin attended the opening ceremonies for the highway extension of the Crimean Bridge. By executive decree on May 18, 2018, Putin confirmed the membership of the new government. Putin said on May 25, 2018, that he will not run for president in 2024, in line with the Russian Constitution. Russia hosted the 21st FIFA World Cup for the first time in 2018, and Putin opened the event on June 14, 2018. Putin stated on October 18, 2018, that Russians will "go to Heaven as martyrs" in the event of a nuclear war, as he would only resort to nuclear weapons as a means of retaliation. As part of Putin's purge, the Russian authorities rigged the September 2019 nationwide regional elections, disqualifying all opposition candidates. Despite its original goal of strengthening the ruling party, United Russia, the event sparked large-scale democratic protests, which resulted in several arrests and instances of police brutality.
Medvedev and his whole cabinet resigned after Putin's 2020 presidential speech to the Federal Assembly on January 15, 2020. Putin suggested major amendments to the constitution in an attempt to solidify his political clout beyond his presidency. Even when a new government took office, he continued to use his authority to benefit Putin. Putin suggested that Medvedev take up the newly-established job of deputy head of the Security Council.
Putin nominated Mikhail Mishustin, head of the country's Federal Tax Service, for prime minister at the same time. The next day, Putin appointed him prime minister by decree, and the State Duma later that day accepted him. It was a momentous occurrence since no one voted against confirming the prime minister. Mishustin presented Putin with a proposed cabinet structure on January 21, 2020. Along with announcing the form of the Cabinet and nominating the future ministers, the president made these announcements on the same day.
the COVID-19 virus
The COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
Visitation by Putin to COVID-19 patients at Moscow's City Clinical Hospital No. 40 took place on March 24, 2020.
In order to counteract the spread of COVID-19, Putin authorized the creation of a State Council Working Group on March 15, 2020. Putin appointed Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin as the group's de facto leader.
After speaking on the phone with Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte on March 22, 2020, Putin arranged for the Russian army to send military doctors, specialized cleaning trucks, and other medical supplies to Italy. This was in response to Italy being the European country hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Putin began doing remote work from his office in Novo-Ogaryovo. According to Dmitry Peskov, Putin's health is not in risk because he consistently passes the COVID-19 exams.
The COVID-19 outbreak has caused an indefinite delay of the constitutional referendum that was supposed to take place on 22 April, according to President Putin's announcement in a national broadcast speech on 25 March. He continued by saying that all Russians should stay home next week as it was a paid holiday. In addition to changes to economic policy, Putin introduced many programs to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and social protection measures. In an effort to support microenterprises, small and medium-sized firms, and similar organizations, Putin has unveiled a number of initiatives. Reducing the size of social security payments, delaying loan repayments by six months, halving social security contributions, and a six-month moratorium on fines and debt collection are all part of these measures. Creditors of debtor firms can also apply for bankruptcy during this time.
In his speech on 2 April 2020, Putin once again extended the non-working time till 30 April 2020. Putin likened Russia's fight against COVID-19 to its battles in the tenth and eleventh centuries against invasions by steppe nomads from the Pecheneg and Cuman regions. Levada polled Russians from April 24th to the 27th and found that 48% of them disapproved of Putin's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, which many interpreted as a sign that he was losing his "strongman" image.
Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergey Kiriyenko, is in charge of Russia’s domestic politics.
Although vaccines should be voluntary, Putin's June 2021 announcement that he had received the Sputnik V vaccination brought attention to the fact that making them obligatory in some professions might aid in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Putin chose to isolate himself in September after the negative tests in his inner circle. The COVID-19 shutdown reportedly narrowed Putin's tight circle of advisers to a small number of more radical characters, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Take a vote on constitutional amendments
Article main: 2020 Russian constitutional vote
In order to officially amend the Russian Constitution and provide Putin the right to run for two further six-year terms, he signed an executive decree on July 3, 2020. The new policy went into effect on July 4, 2020.
In Khabarovsk Krai, in Russia's far east, demonstrators rallied in support of regional governor Sergei Furgal, who was arrested in 2020 and 2021. Anti-Putin sentiment in the 2020 Khabarovsk Krai protests intensified over time. Levada questioned Russians in July 2020 and found that 45% of them supported the demonstrations. Putin signed a law on 22 December 2020 that grants lifelong criminal immunity to Russia's former presidents.
Strikes against Ukraine in full force
The timeline and major material of the article about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Putin announced a "special military operation" in a televised address on February 24, leading to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian-speaking people of the Donbas area, according to Putin, had suffered eight years of "humiliation and genocide" at the hands of Ukraine. He claimed to be acting in the interest of "denazification" in order to save them. Minutes after finishing his address, Hitler declared war on the rest of the country in an effort to overthrow the democratically elected government and install his own, accusing its leaders of being Nazis. Many people throughout the world have spoken out against the invasion by Russia. The international community imposed a number of sanctions on Russia, targeting Putin in particular. There was widespread calls for Putin's prosecution for war crimes following the invasion. Since late 2013, the International Criminal Court has begun examining possible war crimes in Ukraine, thanks to the United States' promise to help prosecute Putin and others for war crimes committed during the invasion of Ukraine. In response to these accusations, Putin increased the alert level of the Strategic Rocket Forces' nuclear deterrent units. U.S. intelligence agencies came to the conclusion in early March that Putin was 'frustrated' by the slow progress caused by the unexpectedly obstinate pushback from Ukraine.
Putin met with Russian officers on October 20, 2022, with Sergei Shoigu, the Russian minister of defense.
Following Putin's signing of a law on March 4th, which established jail sentences of up to fifteen years for anyone who publish "knowingly false information" about the Russian military and its operations, some Russian media outlets ceased reporting on the Kiev crisis. On March 7, in an effort to end the invasion, the Russian government asked Ukraine to stay neutral, recognized Crimea as Russian territory, and recognized the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as discrete entities. On March 8, Putin promised that the SMO would not send in conscripts. On March 16, Putin addressed the Russian "traitors" by saying that the West was planning to utilize them as a "fifth column" to undermine Russia's stability. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, emigration, lower birth rates, and losses from the battle exacerbated the country's long-term demographic challenge.
A UN report dated 25 March states that the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights asserted that Putin had given the go-ahead for an FSB "kidnapping" operation to go after Ukrainian people who did not submit to Russia's invasion of their nation. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made it clear on March 28 that he felt Putin believed the Ukrainians would welcome the invaders with "flowers and smiles," and Putin invited Putin to a meeting to discuss the prospect of Ukraine's non-aligned status.
On September 21st, Putin announced a partial mobilization in response to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv and the announcement of annexation referendums in Kiev and other regions of Ukraine controlled by Russia.
Ukraine territories that Russia has seized from 2014 to 2022; the red line shows the area that is really under Russian control as of September 30, 2022.
Russia annexed the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson on September 30th, after decrees issued by Putin. International law and the international community both hold that the annexations are illegal. Ukraine liberated Kherson that same year on November 11th.
Going to war with Ukraine would take a long time, he warned in December 2022. The casualty toll in the Russo-Ukrainian War reached hundreds of thousands by February 2022. In January 2023, Putin made it clear that he wanted the conquered territories acknowledged as Russian territory before he would begin peace talks with Ukraine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in both formal and informal settings during his March 20-22, 2023, visit to Russia. Vladimir Putin made an appearance at a convention abroad for the first time since the overseas Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant.
On March 21, 2023, Putin welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping with open arms in Moscow.
South Africa's decision that it would grant diplomatic immunity allowed Vladimir Putin to attend the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg in May 2023, despite the ICC arrest warrant. Putin would not be attending the meeting, according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who stated in July 2023 that, "by mutual agreement," Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Russia instead.
Putin met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in St. Petersburg on June 17, 2023.
After a counteroffensive by Ukraine in occupied southeast Ukraine in July 2023, which included US-supplied cluster bombs, Putin warned "reciprocal measures." With his withdrawal from an accord that had allowed Ukraine to transit grain over the Black Sea despite a wartime blockade, Putin vowed to worsen the global food crisis and antagonize neutral nations in the south of the globe on 17 July 2023.
On July 27 and 28, Putin convened the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, where delegates from over 40 African nations gathered. As of August 2023, the number of casualties among the Russian and Ukrainian military involved in the battle in Ukraine exceeded half a million.
Putin criticized Israel's response to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on the Jewish state and cautioned against comparing the Gaza Strip's besiegement to Nazi Germany's siege of Leningrad, albeit acknowledging Israel's right to self-defense. Putin also suggested that Russia may act as a mediator in the conflict. Putin blamed the United States' poor foreign policy in the Middle East for starting the war, speaking out about the suffering of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his displeasure with Russia's UN actions and saw its deepening of connections with Iran as worrisome during a chat with Putin in December 2023.
Putin stated on November 22, 2023, that Russia was "ready for talks" to end the "tragedy" of the Ukrainian conflict and that the Ukrainian leadership had rejected peace talks. "Peace in Ukraine will only come about when we achieve our goals," Putin said on December 14, 2023. These goals include the "de-Nazification, de-militarization, and a neutral status" of Ukraine. An article from December 23, 2023, in The New York Times said that Putin has been signaling through intermediaries his desire to stop hostilities along the current combat lines since at least September 20, 2022.
March in Nice, France, in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, February 27, 2022.
ICC arrest warrant
Attention all Russian citizens: the International Criminal Court is seeking your extradition!
There is a connection between the kidnapping of children in Ukraine during Russia's invasion and the investigation of the nation by the International Criminal Court.
Putin met with President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh of Mongolia in September 2024 in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia was the first country to openly deny the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
Accusing Putin of being responsible for the unlawful expulsion and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on 17 March 2023, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2023.
On no occasion has the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the head of state of one of the five UN Security Council Permanent Members.
Additionally, the ICC filed an arrest order on Maria Lvova-Belova, who is the commissioner for children's rights in the Russian president's office. The charges against them are:
for the war crime of unlawfully transferring populations from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation and for their well-publicized plan to forcibly deport thousands of unaccompanied Ukrainian children to Russia from eastern Ukraine regions controlled by Russia since 24 February 2022.
Russia has defended the deportations by claiming they were a humanitarian need to save children, especially orphans, from the war zone.
Wagner Uprising in the Year 2023
Rally of the Wagner Group (primary article)
On June 24, 2023, Putin addressed the revolt at the Wagner Group, the private military corporation of Yevgeny Prigozhin, in an address to the Russian people.
On June 23, 2023, a small number of paramilitary Wagner members in Russia rose up in rebellion against the government. Even before the rebellion began, tensions were building between Russian Defense Ministry officials and Wagner CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The assault on Prigozhin's forces by the ministry, in his view, was the spark that ignited the rebellion. The speaker cast doubt on Russia's justification for invading Ukraine, accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of being beholden to Russian billionaires, and held Shoigu accountable for Russia's military setbacks. During a June 24 televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced Wagner's actions as treasonous and pledged to put a stop to the rebellion.
With an armored column charging towards Moscow, Prigozhin's soldiers took Rostov-on-Don and the Southern Military District headquarters. Following his resignation agreement with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin began to depart Rostov-on-Don in the evening of June 24.
Business plane accident kills Prigozhin and nine people in Tver Oblast, north of Moscow, over two months after revolt. The incident occurred on August 23, 2023. It is commonly thought that the Russian state was involved, and Western information suggests that an explosion on board was probably the cause of the accident.
This president has been in office since 2024.
See also: Vladimir Putin's 2024 presidential campaign
Putin spoke out on the attack on Crocus City Hall on March 23, 2024.
Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam in June 2024, Putin and Vietnam's president, To Lam
Putin will attend the 16th annual BRICS meeting in Kazan, Russia in October 2024.
Putin won the 2024 Russian presidential election with 88.48% of the vote. International observers did not view the election as free and fair because of Putin's increasing political repressions since the commencement of his full-scale confrontation with Ukraine in 2022. Parts of Ukraine now occupied by Russia also held elections. Allegations of vote stuffing and other types of intimidation tainted the 2024 elections, which statistical research indicates had historically high levels of electoral fraud.
Attacks on Crocus City Hall on March 22, 2024, left at least 145 people dead and 551 wounded. The worst terrorist attack in Russia since the Beslan school massacre in 2004 was this terrorist attack.
Putin assumed office as Russia's sixth president on May 7, 2024. Experts say Putin is trying to make Russia's economy more military-oriented and is "preparing for many more years of war" by appointing Andrey Belousov defense minister in lieu of Sergei Shoigu. Putin was reportedly ready to end the conflict in Ukraine through a negotiated ceasefire in May 2024, according to four Russian sources who spoke to Reuters. This would recognize Russia's military victories and put an end to the fighting on the present front lines, avoiding unpopular measures like further national mobilization and increased war expenditure.
On August 2, 2024, Putin pardoned Evan Gershkovich, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Ilya Yashin, all of whom were American citizens, as part of a prisoner swap with western nations. With the release of 26 persons in the 2024 Ankara prisoner exchange, the United States and Russia swapped more prisoners than at any time since the Cold War ended.
On 25 September 2024, Putin seemed to veer away from the no first use doctrine when he warned the West that Russia would consider nuclear reprisal in the event of a conventional strike. Putin went on to warn nuclear powers that their support for an attack on Russia would make them complicit in any such strike. As a result of their ownership of over 88% of the world's nuclear weapons, the US and Russia are the two leading nuclear powers. There have been other oblique nuclear threats from Putin since the crisis with Ukraine escalated. Putin allegedly made this announcement to dissuade the United States, the United Kingdom, and France from giving their blessing for Ukraine to use long-range missiles supplied by Western countries, such as the Storm Shadow and ATACMS, in assaults conducted against Russia, according to analysts.
Domestic approach
Vladimir Putin's domestic policy is the main topic of this article.
Think about the freedom of assembly, the freedom of the press, and the limits on the internet in Russia.
Additional resources include the Bolotnaya Square case, Russian protests in 2017 and 2018, and demonstrations in Russia from 2011 to 2013.
During the first several years of his presidency, Putin's domestic policies aimed to establish a hierarchical power structure. By edict dated May 13, 2000, he appointed a presidential envoy to govern each of the seven administrative federal districts that divide Russia's 89 federal subjects.
In May of 2000, Putin created seven federal administrative districts. January 2010 saw the division of the Southern Federal District into the 8th North Caucasus Federal District. The 9th Crimean Federal District came into being following Russia's March 2014 annexation of Crimea. From July 2016, it was a part of the Southern Federal District.
According to Stephen White, Russia has made it clear during Putin's presidency that it is not interested in establishing a "second edition" of the American or British political system. Instead, it wants a system that is better compatible with Russia's traditions and current situation. A "sovereign democracy" is one way that some have described Putin's administration. Those in favor of this classification argue that the Russian people, and not foreign forces, should support the policies and acts of the government.
Swedish economist Anders Åslund says that the system works because of Putin's power, which the Russians call "manual management" after he became president again in 2012. Putin, with one notable exception, does what he pleases irrespective of the consequences. Putin learned the hard way following the Russian financial crisis of August 1998 that financial crises are extremely dangerous from a political instability standpoint. Because of this, he worries about his financial security.
Protests against censorship, electoral fraud, and the weakening of free assembly laws were massive after 2012. In July 2000, the Russian Federal Assembly approved a provision that Putin had proposed, giving him the power to depose the leaders of 89 federal subjects. In 2004, the president would put them forth for consideration by the regional legislatures, who would then vote on their acceptance or rejection. This superseded the prior system, which let the people vote for such leaders directly.
Putin defended his actions by claiming it was necessary to eradicate separatist movements and governors with links to organized crime. Some in the West and independent Russian media outlets have criticized these policies and others implemented by Putin's regime, calling them anti-democratic.
For their resistance to the economic oligarchs and political opponents linked with Yeltsin, Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky were either exiled or imprisoned during Putin’s first term of government. Putin has allies and acquaintances among oligarchs like as Roman Abramovich and Arkady Rotenberg. Putin codified tax and land laws by proclamating new codes on labor, administrative, criminal, economic, and civil procedural law. Under Putin's leadership, the Russian police force, military, and state security were all significantly enhanced under Medvedev's presidency.