Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 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. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 1999.

Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, Putin moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and then as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in August 1999.

Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin became acting president and, less than three months later in March 2000, was elected to his first term as president. He was reelected in 2004. Because the constitution limits a person to two consecutive presidential terms, Putin served as Prime Minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev. He returned to the presidency in 2012, following an election marked by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in 2018.

During Putin's first presidential term, the Russian economy grew on average by seven percent per year as a result of several economic reforms and a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas. Putin also led Russia in a conflict against Chechen separatists, re-establishing federal control over the region. While serving as prime minister under Medvedev, he oversaw the Russo-Georgian War, alongside enacting military and police reforms. In his third presidential term, Russia occupied and annexed Crimea and supported a war in eastern Ukraine through several military incursions. These actions led to international sanctions, which, together with a drop in oil prices on the international markets, led to the financial crisis in Russia. He also ordered a military intervention in Syria to support his ally, President Bashar al-Assad, during the Syrian civil war.

In April 2021, after a referendum, he signed constitutional amendments into law, including one allowing him to run for reelection twice more, potentially extending his presidency to 2036. In February 2022, during his fourth presidential term, Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which prompted international condemnation and led to expanded sanctions. In September 2022, he announced a partial mobilization and forcibly annexed four Ukrainian oblasts into Russia. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes related to his alleged criminal responsibility for illegal child abductions during the war. In March 2024, he was reelected to another term in an election beset by record levels of fraud.

Under Putin's rule, the Russian political system has been transformed into an authoritarian dictatorship with a personality cult. His rule has been marked by endemic corruption and widespread human rights violations, including the imprisonment and suppression of political opponents, intimidation and censorship of independent media in Russia, and a lack of free and fair elections. Russia has consistently received very low scores on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, The Economist Democracy Index, Freedom House's Freedom in the World index, and the Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.

Early life and education

Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, now called Saint Petersburg, in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. He was the youngest of three children. His parents came from neighbouring villages in the Tver region. His grandfather, Spiridon Putin, had been a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Two of Putin's brothers died before he was born. Viktor died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942, during the Siege of Leningrad by German forces in World War II. Putin's father served in the Soviet Navy and was severely wounded in 1942.

On 1 September 1960, Putin started school near his home. At the age of 12, he began to practise sambo and judo. He attended a high school with a German language program and is fluent in German. Putin studied law at the Leningrad State University named after Andrei Zhdanov, now Saint Petersburg State University, and graduated in 1975. There he met Anatoly Sobchak, who later became co-author of the Russian constitution.

Intelligence career

In 1975, Putin joined the KGB and trained at the 401st KGB School in Okhta, Leningrad. After training, he worked in the Second Chief Directorate (counterintelligence) before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where he monitored foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad. In September 1984, he was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute.

From 1985 to 1990, he served in Dresden, East Germany, using a cover identity as a translator. There he was one of the KGB's liaison officers to the Stasi secret police and was reportedly promoted to lieutenant colonel. According to the official Kremlin presidential site, the East German communist regime gave him a bronze medal for "faithful service to the National People's Army." Putin has spoken with pleasure about his time in Dresden, including his run-ins with anti-communist protestors of 1989 who tried to occupy the city's Stasi buildings. Writer Masha Gessen wrote in 2012 that Putin and his colleagues were mostly reduced to collecting press clippings, and former Stasi spy chief Markus Wolf also downplayed his work. Journalist Catherine Belton wrote in 2020 that this downplaying covered up KGB support for the Red Army Faction. Klaus Zuchold, who said Putin recruited him, claimed Putin handled a neo-Nazi. However, a 2023 investigation by Der Spiegel reported that an anonymous source who had claimed to be a former Red Army Faction member had never been one. Putin said that during the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, he saved important files so they would not be destroyed. After the collapse of the Communist East German government, he was to leave active KGB service, although the KGB and the Soviet Army still operated in eastern Germany. He returned to Leningrad in 1990 and worked with Leningrad State University under Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov while working on his doctoral dissertation. There he renewed his friendship with Anatoly Sobchak, who was soon elected Mayor of Leningrad. Putin said he resigned as a lieutenant colonel on 20 August 1991, during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Political career

Further information: Russia under Vladimir Putin, Putinism, List of speeches given by Vladimir Putin, and Politics of Russia

Putin's political career began in Saint Petersburg, where in 1990 he became an advisor on international affairs to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. In 1991 he led the city's committee for foreign relations, and in the mid-1990s he worked as first deputy head of the city administration and led the local branch of Our Home Is Russia. In 1996, after Sobchak lost an election, Putin was called to Moscow. In 1998, President Boris Yeltsin appointed him head of the FSB, Russia's main intelligence and security agency.

In 1999, Putin described communism as "a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization." That year, Zyuganov was seen as the likely leader in the first round of the 2000 presidential election, but by autumn Putin had passed him in the polls. In August 1999 Putin became one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers and then acting Prime Minister. Yeltsin chose him as his successor, and Putin won the presidential election in March 2000. Since then, he has led reforms aimed at strengthening state power and limiting the influence of powerful business leaders. His time in office has also included the annexation of Crimea in 2014, military involvement in Syria, the Russo-Ukrainian war, and a full-scale war with Ukraine since 2022.

Domestic policies

Main article: Domestic policy of Vladimir Putin

See also: Freedom of assembly in Russia, Media freedom in Russia, and Internet censorship in Russia

Further information: 2011–2013 Russian protests, 2017–2018 Russian protests, and Bolotnaya Square case

Putin's domestic policies, especially early in his first presidency, aimed to create a vertical power structure. On 13 May 2000, he issued a decree organizing the 89 federal subjects of Russia into seven federal districts, each with a presidential envoy. In July 2000, a law Putin proposed and the Federal Assembly of Russia approved let him dismiss the heads of the 89 federal subjects. In 2004, the heads (usually called "governors") were no longer elected by popular vote but nominated by the president. Putin said this would stop separatist tendencies and remove governors connected with organized crime. Many independent Russian media outlets and Western commentators criticized these actions as anti-democratic. Stephen White noted that Russia did not want a copy of the American or British political system. Some commentators called Putin's administration a "sovereign democracy", an idea mainly promoted by Vladislav Surkov. Anders Åslund described Putin's style as "manual management". During his first term, Putin opposed some of the Yeltsin-era business oligarchs, leading to the exile or imprisonment of Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Others, such as Roman Abramovich and Arkady Rotenberg, remained friends and allies. Under Medvedev's presidency, reforms included the Russian police reform and the Russian military reform. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation changed into part of the "systemic opposition".

Economic policy changed over time. Sergey Guriyev divided it into four periods. Industry grew strongly in Putin's first eight years in office, helped by the 2000s commodities boom and record-high oil prices. A fund for oil revenue helped Russia repay the Soviet Union's debts by 2005, and Russia joined the World Trade Organization in August 2012. In 2014, Putin signed a deal to supply China with natural gas through Power of Siberia. Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol in 2004 and Russia joined the Paris Agreement in 2019, with a goal to reach net zero by 2060. Putin regularly attended major services of the Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, and he helped promote the Act of Canonical Communion with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2007. Human rights groups criticized limits on religious freedom and on the war censorship laws. Human Rights Watch reported that restrictive laws were passed after Putin was reelected in May 2012. Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House criticized the state of press freedom in Russia. Putin promoted Russian conservatism and attacked globalism and neoliberalism. Russia hosted Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Putin also used Holocaust and Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact history as part of his foreign policy message.

Foreign policy

Main article: Foreign policy of Vladimir Putin

See also: Foreign relations of Russia and List of international presidential trips made by Vladimir Putin

During Putin's time in power, Russia had tensions with the West and much stronger ties with China.^{: 499} Putin's main foreign policy goals came from a 30 December 1999 document on the government's website, "Russia at the Turn of the Millennium". Putin also spoke favorably of artificial intelligence, saying that whoever leads in this area "will become the ruler of the world." In Asia, Russia built ties with SCO and BRICS countries, and Putin met Shinzo Abe many times to discuss disputes between Japan and Russia, though no agreement was signed. In the Asia-Pacific region, Russia also grew closer to Mongolia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. In the post-Soviet states, the Kremlin said Russia had a sphere of influence. Several colour revolutions in these countries, including the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, strained their ties with Russia. After the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, and a war in eastern Ukraine followed. Putin also worked to build the Eurasian Union, which was established on 1 January 2015.

Relations with the United States and NATO became more difficult over time. After the 9/11 attacks, Putin supported the U.S. in its war on terror, but relations became cooler after the Iraq War began in 2003. Tensions grew over issues such as the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018, which Britain blamed on Russia. Russia's relations with the G8 group were also suspended in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. In Syria, Putin backed the government of Bashar al-Assad and increased Russia's military presence there. Russia also had relationships with Venezuela, Cuba, and Brazil in Latin America, and with Iran, Libya, and several African countries. In 2019, the first Russia-Africa Summit was held in Sochi, Russia.

Support notes: see hatnote and table placeholders above.

Public image

Main article: Public image of Vladimir Putin

See also: List of cults of personality

Polls have shown that Putin's approval ratings changed over the years. In June 2007, his approval was 81%, the second-highest of any world leader that year. In January 2013, during the 2011–2013 Russian protests, it fell to 62%, its lowest since 2000. In June 2015, it reached 89%, an all-time high. Observers linked his high ratings to better living standards and Russia's stronger place in the world. The director of the Levada Center said in 2015 that Russian poll results could not be fairly compared with polls in democratic countries, because Russia has no real political competition. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, state-controlled TV described the invasion as a "special military operation", and the censorship agency Roskomnadzor ordered media to use only state sources. Surveys in March 2022 found that 97% of Ukrainians had an unfavorable view of Putin. Experts warned that Russian poll results may not show what people really think, because of the Russian 2022 war censorship laws and because many people refused to answer questions.

Putin has built a public image as an outdoorsy, athletic tough guy, often shown doing physical feats and risky activities. Wired said this image "deliberately cultivates the macho, take-charge superhero image". Many Kremlinologists have accused him of trying to create a cult of personality, which the Kremlin denies. Putin's name and image appear in songs and products, including Putinka vodka and the PuTin brand of canned food. In 2007, he was the Time Person of the Year, and in 2015 he was No. 1 on Time's Most Influential People List. Forbes named him the World's Most Powerful Individual every year from 2013 to 2016. In Germany, the word "Putinversteher", a neologism meaning "one who understands Putin", is used as an insult for people who show empathy toward him. Putin is also known for putinisms, short sayings and catch-phrases, many first made during his annual Q&A conferences, where he often uses sharp language, Russian jokes, and folk sayings.

Assessments

Opinions about Putin as a leader have changed over his long time in power. Critics say he moved Russia toward one-person rule and weakened the system of elected government that Boris Yeltsin supported. Russian dissidents and Western leaders often call him a dictator, while others think he has had a good effect on Russia. Otto von Habsburg, the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary and a former Member of the European Parliament, was an early critic. In 2002, 2003, and 2005, he warned that Putin was an "international threat," "cruel and oppressive," and a "stone cold technocrat." In 2015, Garry Kasparov called Putin a "dictator," and in 2016, Alexei Navalny called him the "Tsar of corruption." Hillary Clinton described him as a "bully" and "arrogant," and the Dalai Lama called him "self-centered."

Henry Kissinger wrote in 2014 that the West had demonized Putin. Egon Krenz said that the Cold War never ended, adding that after weak presidents like Gorbachev and Yeltsin, it was a great fortune for Russia to have Putin. Mikhail Gorbachev said Putin had saved Russia from a collapse, even while noting problems with democracy and media freedom. Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, also praised Putin. Experts say Russia has suffered democratic backsliding under Putin. Freedom House has listed Russia as "not free" since 2005, and the Economist Intelligence Unit has rated it "authoritarian" since 2011, after previously calling it a "hybrid regime." In 2018, Forbes described Putin's actions as those of a dictator, and in 2021, The Economist said he had shifted from autocracy to dictatorship. In a 2015 article for The Wall Street Journal, John Kornblum disputed Putin's claim that the West had betrayed Russia after the Cold War. Kristen Ghodsee argued in 2017 that Western attitudes after the Cold War, along with links drawn between socialist ideas and Stalinism, helped set the stage for hardship across the Eastern Bloc, including Russia.

After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine

After civilian casualties grew during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. president Joe Biden called Putin a war criminal and "murderous dictator." In his 2022 State of the Union Address, Biden said Putin had "badly miscalculated." The Ukrainian envoy to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, and Latvian prime minister Krisjanis Karins both compared Putin to Adolf Hitler. Other leaders, including Gabrielius Landsbergis, Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Justin Trudeau, and Boris Johnson, also strongly criticized him. In a March 2025 essay in The Atlantic, Franklin Foer argued that Putin's rule has affected more than Russia, including democratic development in nearby countries and relations between Russia and the West.

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin has been nominated and elected as President of Russia all five times since 2000, usually as an independent candidate. In the most recent election, in 2024, he received 88% of the votes.

There were reports of irregularities at this election, including ballot stuffing and pressure on people to vote a certain way. Russian authorities said that in occupied areas of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Putin won 88.12% and 92.83% of the votes. In Chechnya, he won 98.99% of the vote.

Personal life

Family

Main article: Family of Vladimir Putin

On 28 July 1983, Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva. They lived in East Germany from 1985 to 1990. They have two daughters, Maria Putina and Yekaterina Putina.

An investigation by Proekt, published in November 2020, claimed that Putin has another daughter, Elizaveta, with Svetlana Krivonogikh. She studied in Paris. In 2008, the Moskovsky Korrespondent reported that Putin was engaged to Alina Kabaeva. The story was denied, and the newspaper was closed soon after. In 2013, Putin and Lyudmila announced that their marriage was over, and the divorce was finished in 2014. Putin's cousin, Igor Putin, was a director at Master Bank and was accused in several money-laundering scandals.

Wealth

See also: Panama Papers and Pandora Papers

Official figures from the legislative election of 2007 listed Putin's wealth at about 3.7 million rubles in bank accounts, plus an apartment and other assets. He has been seen wearing expensive watches, including a Blancpain. Some people believe Putin secretly controls a large fortune. The Washington Post and other media have reported on this, and Garry Kasparov said Putin controls a great deal of money. Putin has denied being involved with the law firm Mossack Fonseca. In 2016, documents from that firm were leaked to the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. These documents, called the Panama Papers, showed that Putin's close associates, including Arkady and Boris Rotenberg and his best friend Sergei Roldugin, owned offshore companies. Putin's name did not appear in these records.

Residences

Official government residences

As president and prime minister, Putin has lived in many official homes, including the Moscow Kremlin, Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Oblast, Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, and Dolgiye Borody in Novgorod Oblast.

Personal residences

After returning from Dresden, Putin built a dacha on the Karelian Isthmus in Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast. In 1996, he and seven friends registered a co-operative society called Ozero, which became a gated community. A large mansion called "Putin's Palace" is being built near the Black Sea. In 2012, Sergei Kolesnikov told Newsnight that Igor Sechin had ordered him to oversee its building. In 2021, Alexei Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation published a video claiming Putin had used stolen money to build the estate. Putin has preferred traveling by armored train since the prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Pets

Main article: Pets of Vladimir Putin

Putin has received five dogs from national leaders, including Konni, who died in 2014.

Religion

Putin is Russian Orthodox. His mother was a Christian who went to church, while his father was an atheist. His mother secretly baptized him as a baby. Putin said his faith grew stronger after a car crash in 1993 and a fire that burned his dacha in 1996. In 2007, when asked whether he believes in God, he said some beliefs should not be shared with the public. His rumored confessor is Tikhon Shevkunov, though his former advisor Sergei Pugachev has questioned how sincere Putin's Christianity is.

Sports

Putin supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg in football. He also enjoys ice hockey and bandy. He has practiced judo since he was 11 and later took up sambo. In 2012, he was given the eighth dan in judo, the black belt level, becoming the first Russian to reach that rank. In March 2022, he was removed from all positions in the International Judo Federation because of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Some experts, including Benjamin Wittes, editor of Lawfare, have questioned his martial arts skills.

Health

See also: Claims of Vladimir Putin's incapacity and death

In July 2022, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, said there was no evidence that Putin was unstable or in poor health. Burns had been U.S. ambassador to Russia. Some media have speculated about Putin's health, including a claim in 2018 that he had a sensory room in his home in Novgorod Oblast. In 2022, The Sun suggested Putin might have Parkinson's disease, but medical professionals have not supported this idea, and it is not possible to diagnose the condition from video clips alone.

Awards and honours

Main article: List of awards and honours received by Vladimir Putin

At least fifteen countries have given Vladimir Putin civilian awards since 2001.

Putin has received honorary doctorates and other awards from organizations around the world. However, some of these were taken back after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.