Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich << POO tihn, VLAH duh meer VLAH duh MEER uh vihch >> (1952-…), became president of Russia in 2012. He had previously served as president from 2000 to 2008. He had also served as prime minister briefly in 1999 and again from 2008 to 2012.
Putin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on Oct. 7, 1952. He earned a law degree from Leningrad State University in 1975. Putin served in the KGB, the intelligence-gathering and security force of the Soviet Union, from 1975 to 1990. In 1990, Putin returned to Leningrad from KGB service in East Germany and worked in the city’s government. In 1996, he was invited to Moscow to serve in Russia’s federal government.
Putin advanced within President Boris N. Yeltsin’s administration, holding a variety of positions (see Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich). In 1998, Putin became head of the Federal Security Service, a successor to the KGB. In August 1999, Yeltsin chose Putin as prime minister. Putin became acting president of Russia on Dec. 31, 1999, after Yeltsin resigned. Putin was elected to the office in March 2000.
Yeltsin’s presidency had left the Russian state weakened. After Putin became president, he greatly strengthened the federal government. Under Putin, Russia’s parliament changed the country’s laws to give the president and federal government more power. Putin also increased state control of the news media and restricted political expression that opposed his government. Critics accused Putin of reversing the advances toward freedom and democracy that Russia had made in the 1990’s.
Early in his presidency, Putin took steps to improve relationships with Europe and the United States. In 2002, Russia entered into a special partnership with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance that had been formed in 1949 to oppose the Soviet Union. Also in 2002, Putin and U.S. president George W. Bush signed a treaty to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in both countries.
Putin struggled to end the war for independence in the Russian republic of Chechnya. He initially gained popularity among the Russian people for taking a tough stand against the rebellion. But fighting in the region continued. See Chechnya.
Putin was elected to a second presidential term in 2004. Ties between Russia and the West became increasingly strained. In 2007, Putin strongly opposed a U.S. plan to install a missile defense system in eastern Europe. He accused the West, particularly the European Union (EU) and the United States, of illegally expanding their powers.
When his second term ended, Putin chose his ally Dmitry Medvedev as his successor. Medvedev then chose Putin to serve as prime minister, though many international observers believed Putin was unofficially still in charge. In 2008, Russia clashed with the neighboring nation of Georgia over control of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian military seized control of South Ossetia and eventually sent forces across the border deeper into Georgia. The European Union brokered a peace agreement, under which Russia removed its troops from Georgia. However, Russian forces remained stationed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which Russia recognized as independent. Most other countries continued to consider the areas as part of Georgia.
Putin ignited worldwide controversy in early 2014. That February, Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled his country after months of antigovernment protests. In March, Russia annexed (assumed control of) the Crimean Peninsula, which juts into the Black Sea from southern Ukraine. Putin claimed he was protecting Crimea’s ethnic Russian population from extremist forces. Ukraine’s government, and many of its allies, considered the move illegal. In the following months, pro-Russian separatists took control of several regions of eastern Ukraine. Western officials accused Putin’s government of sending special forces troops to the region and of providing the rebels with weapons. Putin denied the allegations. As international tensions remained high, several Western governments imposed sanctions on Russia, targeting the country’s oil and gas industries. The sanctions hit Russia’s economy hard, sending the country into a two-year recession.
In 2015, Russia began launching airstrikes in Syria against terrorists and other rebel opponents of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Russia also supported Assad in the following years, as civil war in Syria continued.
In 2018, Putin was elected to a fourth term as president in a landslide victory. In January 2020, Mikhail Mishustin succeeded Medvedev as prime minister. Also in 2020, the Russian legislature passed, and voters later approved, a constitutional change that allowed Putin to seek reelection in 2024 and 2030.
As Russia’s leader, Putin has sought to increase his country’s influence in other nations, especially in those of central Asia and eastern Europe that were once part of the Soviet Union or closely tied to it. In 2021 and 2022, tensions rose in Europe as a result of a Russian buildup of military forces near the borders of Ukraine. By January 2022, more than 100,000 Russian troops were positioned near the Ukrainian borders for what Russia said were military drills. Meanwhile, Putin demanded that Ukraine reduce its military forces and that the United States and other NATO members reduce their military presence in eastern Europe. He also demanded a guarantee that Ukraine would never join NATO. Both Ukraine and the members of NATO refused to allow Putin to dictate their policies. NATO offered instead to negotiate on Russia’s security concerns about weapons and military forces based in Europe. It also warned Russia against taking any military action in Ukraine.
By February, more than 150,000 Russian troops were positioned near Ukraine. Putin then took further action to divide and destabilize Ukraine by announcing that Russia officially recognized the independence of the separatist-claimed regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. This recognition covered not only land held by pro-Russian separatists in those regions, but also Ukrainian territory claimed by the separatists but controlled by the Ukrainian government.
On February 23, the leaders of the separatist regions requested Russian military aid. The following day, on Putin’s orders, Russian missiles began to strike cities and other targets throughout Ukraine. Russian forces moved across Ukraine’s borders to attack the country from three sides. Nations around the world condemned Putin’s actions. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many nations imposed harsh economic sanctions on Russia and offered humanitarian aid and military supplies to Ukraine. The Russian invasion marked the beginning of open war between Russia and Ukraine.
During the war, thousands of Ukrainian children were abducted and sent to Russia to be raised as Russians. In March 2023, in response to the abductions, the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged Putin with war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest. However, Russia does not recognize the ICC, and Putin has not been arrested. In 2024, Putin was elected to a fifth term as president.
