Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin (born 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. He also served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and has been described as Russia's de facto leader since 1999. Born in Leningrad, he worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to lieutenant colonel, before entering politics in 1991 and moving to Moscow in 1996.
Biography
Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952 and served as a KGB officer, partly in East Germany. After the Soviet collapse he worked for the mayor of Saint Petersburg, then moved to Moscow, where he became director of the FSB and, in 1999, prime minister under Boris Yeltsin.
He became acting president when Yeltsin resigned on 31 December 1999 and won elections in 2000 and 2004. He served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012 while Dmitry Medvedev was president, then returned to the presidency. Under his rule the state took control of major media and energy companies, and political opposition was curtailed.
Russia fought the Second Chechen War, invaded Georgia in 2008, annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In 2023 the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest over the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Offices held
Sergei Stepashin Succeeded by
Dmitry Medvedev
3 terms
- Aug 9, 1999 – Aug 16, 1999 Preceded by Sergei Stepashin
- Aug 16, 1999 – May 7, 2000 Succeeded by Mikhail Kasianov
- May 8, 2008 – May 7, 2012 Preceded by Viktor Zubkov Succeeded by Dmitry Medvedev
Victor Chernomyrdin
3 terms
- Dec 31, 1999 – May 7, 2000 Preceded by Victor Chernomyrdin
- May 7, 2000 – May 7, 2008 Succeeded by Dmitry Medvedev
- from May 7, 2012 Preceded by Dmitry Medvedev
Affiliations
Party membership
- Jan 1, 1975 – Jan 1, 1991 Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- May 1, 1995 – Jan 1, 1999 Our Home – Russia
