Vladimir Putin

"Putin" redirects here. For other uses, see Putin (surname).

"VVP" redirects here. For the cycling team with abbreviation VVP, see Vrienden van het Platteland.

Vladimir Putin Владимир Путин
Putin in March 2015
2nd and 4th President of Russia
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2012
Prime Minister	Viktor Zubkov Dmitry Medvedev
Preceded by	Dmitry Medvedev
In office 7 May 2000 – 7 May 2008 Acting: 31 December 1999 – 7 May 2000
Prime Minister	Mikhail Kasyanov Mikhail Fradkov Viktor Zubkov
Preceded by	Boris Yeltsin
Succeeded by	Dmitry Medvedev
Prime Minister of Russia
In office 8 May 2008 – 7 May 2012
President	Dmitry Medvedev
Deputy	Igor Shuvalov
Preceded by	Viktor Zubkov
Succeeded by	Dmitry Medvedev
In office 9 August 1999 – 7 May 2000 Acting: 9 August 1999 – 16 August 1999
President	Boris Yeltsin
Deputy	Viktor Khristenko Mikhail Kasyanov
Preceded by	Sergei Stepashin
Succeeded by	Mikhail Kasyanov
Leader of United Russia
In office 1 January 2008 – 30 May 2012
Preceded by	Boris Gryzlov
Succeeded by	Dmitry Medvedev
Secretary of the Security Council
In office 9 March 1999 – 9 August 1999
President	Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by	Nikolay Bordyuzha
Succeeded by	Sergei Ivanov
Director of the Federal Security Service
In office 25 July 1998 – 29 March 1999
President	Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by	Nikolay Kovalyov
Succeeded by	Nikolai Patrushev
Personal details
Born	Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (1952-10-07) 7 October 1952 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1975–91) Our Home-Russia (1995–99) Unity (1999–2001) Independent (1991–95; 2001–08) United Russia (2008–present)
Other political affiliations	People's Front (2011–present)
Spouse	Lyudmila Shkrebneva ​ ​ (m. 1983; div. 2014)​
Children	Juri Hayes
Alma mater	Leningrad State University
Awards	Order of Honour
Signature
Website	Official website
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Branch/service	KGB
Years of service	1975–1991
Rank	Lieutenant colonel

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (/ˈpuːtɪn/; Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин, IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn] , born 7 October 1952) has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012, succeeding Dmitry Medvedev. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During his last term as Prime Minister, he was also the chairman of United Russia, the ruling party.

For 16 years, Putin was an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin easily won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was reelected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. In March 2012, he won the election, which was criticized for procedural irregularities, and is serving a six-year term.

Under Putin, from 1999–2008 the Russian economy grew rapidly, only to experience problems subsequently due to falling oil prices and Western sanctions imposed as a result of Russian annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Eastern Ukraine. The 2011 Democracy Index stated that Russia was in "a long process of regression [that] culminated in a move from a hybrid to an authoritarian regime" in view of Putin's candidacy and flawed parliamentary elections. Putin has enjoyed high to very high domestic approval ratings throughout his career, particularly following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. He has been dubbed the World's Most Powerful Person by Forbes for three years in a row from 2013-2015.

Ancestry, early life, and education

Parents, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Shelomova

Putin was born on 7 October 1952, in Leningrad (modern-day Saint Petersburg), Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (née Shelomova; 1911–1998). His mother was a factory worker, and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Early in World War II he served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD. Later he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942.

The youngest of three boys, Vladimir Putin's two elder brothers, Viktor and Albert, were born in the mid-1930s; Albert died within a few months of birth, while Viktor succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad in World War II.

Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879–1965), was a chef who at one time or another cooked for Vladimir Lenin, Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, and on several occasions for Joseph Stalin. Putin's maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers of the Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles disappeared at the front.

The ancestry of Vladimir Putin has been described as a mystery, with no records surviving of any ancestors of any people with the surname "Putin" beyond his grandfather Spiridon Ivanovich. His autobiography, Ot Pervogo Litsa (English: In the First Person), which is based on Putin's interviews, speaks of humble beginnings, including early years in a communal apartment, shared by several families, in Leningrad.

Putin with his mother, Maria Ivanovna, in July 1958

On 1 September 1960, he started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, just across from his house. By 11 years old he was one of a few in a class of more than 45 pupils who was not yet a member of the Pioneers, largely because of his rowdy behavior. At 12 years of age he started taking sport seriously in the form of sambo and then judo. In his youth, Putin was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov. He studied German while he attended Saint Petersburg High School 281. Putin speaks fluent German.

Putin entered the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1970, graduating in 1975. His final thesis was titled "The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law". While at university he had to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until the party was dissolved in December 1991. It was here he met Anatoly Sobchak, who later played an important role in Putin's career. Sobchak was at the time an Assistant Professor and lectured Putin's class on Business Law (khozyaystvennoye pravo).

KGB career

Vladimir and Lyudmila Putina on their wedding day, July 1983

Putin in KGB uniform

Putin joined the KGB in 1975 upon graduation, and underwent a year's training at the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad. Putin was reportedly evaluated by KGB superiors as "flawed", unsocial and with a "lowered sense of danger". He then went on to work briefly in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence) before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where among his duties was the monitoring of foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad.

From 1985 to 1990, the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany. During that time, Putin was assigned to Directorate S, the illegal intelligence-gathering unit (the KGB's classification for agents who used falsified identities) where he was given cover as a translator and interpreter. One of Putin's jobs was to coordinate efforts with the Stasi to track down and recruit foreigners in Dresden, usually those who were enrolled at the Dresden University of Technology, in the hopes of sending them undercover in the United States.

Putin and his colleagues were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB. Former agents estimate they spent three-quarters of their time writing reports. Putin's biggest success in his stay in Dresden appears to have been in...[contacting] a U.S. Army Sergeant, who sold them an unclassified Manual for 800 marks.

During the Fall of the Berlin Wall, when civil rights activists threatened to storm the KGB building, "Putin burned the KGB's files and sent frantic requests for orders from his bosses in the capital. 'Moscow is silent,' Putin later recalled in his official biography".

Following the collapse of the communist East German government, Putin was recalled to the Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June 1991 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov. In his new position, Putin maintained surveillance on the student body and kept an eye out for recruits. It was during his stint at the university that Putin grew reacquainted with his former professor Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad.

Putin resigned from the active state security services with the rank of lieutenant colonel on 20 August 1991 (with some efforts to resign made earlier), on the second day of the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Putin later explained his decision: "As soon as the coup began, I immediately decided which side I was on", although he also noted that the choice was hard because he had spent the best part of his life with "the organs". In 1999, he described communism as "a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization".

Political career

Main article: Political career of Vladimir Putin

Saint Petersburg administration (1990–1996)

In May 1990, Putin was appointed as an advisor on international affairs to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Then, on 28 June 1991, he became head of the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments and registering business ventures.

Less than one year later, Putin was investigated by the city legislative council, and the investigators concluded that Putin had understated prices and permitted the export of metals valued at $93 million, in exchange for foreign food aid that never arrived. Despite the investigators' recommendation that Putin be fired, Putin remained head of the Committee for External Relations until 1996. From 1994 to 1996, Putin held several other political and governmental positions in Saint Petersburg.

In March 1994, Putin was appointed as First Deputy Chairman of the Government of Saint Petersburg. In May 1995, Putin organized the Saint Petersburg branch of the pro-government Our Home Is Russia political party, the liberal party of power founded by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. During the summer and autumn of 1995, Putin managed legislative election campaign for Our Home Is Russia. From 1995 through June 1997, Putin led the Saint Petersburg branch of Our Home Is Russia.

Early Moscow career (1996–1999)

Putin as FSB director, 1 January 1998

In 1996, Mayor Anatoly Sobchak lost his bid for reelection in Saint Petersburg. Putin was called to Moscow and in June 1996 became a Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department headed by Pavel Borodin. He occupied this position until March 1997. During his tenure Putin was responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized transfer of the former assets of the Soviet Union and Communist Party to the Russian Federation.

On 26 March 1997, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy chief of Presidential Staff, which he remained until May 1998, and chief of the Main Control Directorate of the Presidential Property Management Department (until June 1998). His predecessor on this position was Alexei Kudrin and the successor was Nikolai Patrushev, both future prominent politicians and Putin's associates.

On 27 June 1997, at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, guided by rector Vladimir Litvinenko, Putin defended his Candidate of Science dissertation in economics, titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations". This exemplified the custom in Russia for a rising young official to write a scholarly work in midcareer. When Putin later became president, the dissertation became a target of plagiarism accusations by fellows at the Brookings Institution; although the dissertation was referenced, the Brookings fellows asserted it constituted plagiarism albeit perhaps unintentional. The dissertation committee denied the accusations.

On 25 May 1998, Putin was appointed First Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff for regions, replacing Viktoriya Mitina; and, on 15 July, was appointed Head of the Commission for the preparation of agreements on the delimitation of power of regions and the federal center attached to the President, replacing Sergey Shakhray. After Putin's appointment, the commission completed no such agreements, although during Shakhray's term as the Head of the Commission there were 46 agreements signed. Later, after becoming president, Putin canceled all those agreements.

On 25 July 1998, Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin head of the Federal Security Service (Russian abbreviation: FSB; one of the successor agencies to the KGB), the position Putin occupied until August 1999. He became a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on 1 October 1998 and its Secretary on 29 March 1999.

First premiership (1999)

On 9 August 1999, Vladimir Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, and later on that day was appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin also announced that he wanted to see Putin as his successor. Still later on that same day, Putin agreed to run for the presidency.

On 16 August, the State Duma approved his appointment as Prime Minister with 233 votes in favour (vs. 84 against, 17 abstained), while a simple majority of 226 was required, making him Russia's fifth PM in fewer than eighteen months. On his appointment, few expected Putin, virtually unknown to the general public, to last any longer than his predecessors. He was initially regarded as a Yeltsin loyalist; like other prime ministers of Boris Yeltsin, Putin did not choose ministers himself, his cabinet being determined by the presidential administration.

Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and they fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor. Putin's law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the Second Chechen War, soon combined to raise Putin's popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.

While not formally associated with any party, Putin pledged his support to the newly formed Unity Party, which won the second largest percentage of the popular vote (23.3%) in the December 1999 Duma elections, and in turn he was supported by it.

Acting presidency (1999–2000)

Putin landing in Grozny in a Su-27 fighter jet, 20 March 2000

On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and, according to the Constitution of Russia, Putin became Acting President of the Russian Federation. On assuming this role, Putin went on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya.

The first Presidential Decree that Putin signed, on 31 December 1999, was titled "On guarantees for former president of the Russian Federation and members of his family". This ensured that "corruption charges against the outgoing President and his relatives" would not be pursued. Later, on 12 February 2001, Putin signed a similar federal law which replaced the decree of 1999.

While his opponents had been preparing for an election in June 2000, Yeltsin's resignation resulted in the Presidential elections being held within three months, on 26 March 2000; Putin won in the first round with 53% of the vote.

First presidential term (2000–2004)

Taking presidential oath beside Yeltsin, May 2000

Vladimir Putin was inaugurated president on 7 May 2000. He appointed Minister of Finance Mikhail Kasyanov as his prime minister.

The first major challenge to Putin's popularity came in August 2000, when he was criticized for his alleged mishandling of the Kursk submarine disaster. That criticism was largely because it was several days before he returned from vacation, and several more before he visited the scene.

Between 2000 and 2004, Putin set about reconstruction of the impoverished condition of the country, apparently winning a power-struggle with the Russian oligarchs, reaching a 'grand-bargain' with them. This bargain allowed the oligarchs to maintain most of their powers, in exchange for their explicit support for – and alignment with – his government. A new group of business magnates, such as Gennady Timchenko, Vladimir Yakunin, Yury Kovalchuk, Sergey Chemezov, with close personal ties to Putin, also emerged.

Russia and NATO deepened their cooperation by creating the Russia-NATO council in 2002

Many in the Russian press and in the international media warned that the death of 130 hostages in the special forces' rescue operation during the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis would severely damage President Putin's popularity. However, shortly after the siege had ended, the Russian president was enjoying record public approval ratings – 83% of Russians declared themselves satisfied with Putin and his handling of the siege.

A few months before elections, Putin fired Prime Minister Kasyanov's cabinet and appointed Mikhail Fradkov to his place. Sergey Ivanov became the first civilian in Russia to take the Defense Minister position.

In 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya adopting a new constitution which declares that the Republic of Chechnya is a part of Russia. Chechnya has been gradually stabilized with the establishment of the parliamentary elections and a regional government.

Throughout the war, Russia severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement. However, sporadic attacks by rebels continued to occur throughout the North Caucasus.

Second presidential term (2004–2008)

Speaking at the 2005 Victory Day Parade on Red Square

Putin with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in March 2008

On 14 March 2004, Putin was elected to the presidency for a second term, receiving 71% of the vote. The Beslan school hostage crisis took place in September 2004, in which hundreds died. In response, Putin took a variety of administrative measures.

In 2005, the National Priority Projects were launched to improve Russia's health care, education, housing and agriculture.

The continued criminal prosecution of Russia's then richest man, President of YUKOS company Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for fraud and tax evasion was seen by the international press as a retaliation for Khodorkovsky's donations to both liberal and communist opponents of the Kremlin. The government said that Khodorkovsky was corrupting a large segment of the Duma to prevent tax code changes such as taxes on windfall profits and closing offshore tax evasion vehicles. Khodorkovsky was arrested, Yukos was bankrupted and the company's assets were auctioned at below-market value, with the largest share acquired by the state company Rosneft. The fate of Yukos was seen in the West as a sign of a broader shift of Russia towards a system of state capitalism. This was underscored in July 2014 when shareholders of Yukos were awarded $50 billion in compensation by the Permanent Arbitration Court in The Hague.

A study by Bank of Finland's Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT) in 2008 found that state intervention had made a positive impact on the corporate governance of many companies in Russia: the governance was better in companies with state control or with a stake held by the government.

Putin was criticized in the West and also by Russian liberals for what many observers considered a wide-scale crackdown on media freedom in Russia. On 7 October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who exposed corruption in the Russian army and its conduct in Chechnya, was shot in the lobby of her apartment building. The death of Politkovskaya triggered an outcry in Western media, with accusations that, at best, Putin has failed to protect the country's new independent media. When asked about the Politkovskaya murder in his interview with the German TV channel ARD, Putin said that her murder brings much more harm to the Russian authorities than her writing. By 2012 the performers of the murder were arrested and named Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev as possible clients.

In 2007, "Dissenters' Marches" were organized by the opposition group The Other Russia, led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov and national-Bolshevist leader Eduard Limonov. Following prior warnings, demonstrations in several Russian cities were met by police action, which included interfering with the travel of the protesters and the arrests of as many as 150 people who attempted to break through police lines. The Dissenters' Marches have received little support among the Russian general public, according to polls.

On 12 September 2007, Putin dissolved the government upon the request of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. Fradkov commented that it was to give the President a "free hand" in the run-up to the parliamentary election. Viktor Zubkov was appointed the new prime minister.

In December 2007, United Russia won 64.24% of the popular vote in their run for State Duma according to election preliminary results. United Russia's victory in December 2007 elections was seen by many as an indication of strong popular support of the then Russian leadership and its policies.

In his last days in office Putin was reported to have taken a series of steps to re-align the regional bureaucracy to make the governors report to the prime minister rather than the president. Putin's office explained that "the changes... bear a refining nature and do not affect the essential positions of the system. The key role in estimating the effectiveness of activity of regional authority still belongs to the President of the Russian Federation."

Second premiership (2008–2012)

Main article: Vladimir Putin's Second Cabinet

Putin was barred from a third term by the Constitution. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected his successor. In a power-switching operation on 8 May 2008, only a day after handing the presidency to Medvedev, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia, maintaining his political dominance.

Vladimir Putin with Dmitry Medvedev, March 2008

The Great Recession hit the Russian economy especially hard, interrupting the flow of cheap Western credit and investments. This coincided with tension in relationships with the EU and the US following the 2008 South Ossetia war, in which Russia invaded neighboring Georgia populated by less than 5 million people.

However, the large financial reserves, accumulated in the Stabilization Fund of Russia in the previous period of high oil prices, helped the country to cope with the crisis and resume economic growth since mid-2009. The Russian government's anti-crisis measures have been praised by the World Bank, which said in its Russia Economic Report from November 2008: "prudent fiscal management and substantial financial reserves have protected Russia from deeper consequences of this external shock. The government's policy response so far—swift, comprehensive, and coordinated—has helped limit the impact."

Putin visits the Russian-American joint plant Cummins-KAMA in the Republic of Tatarstan, 17 November 2009

Putin has said that overcoming the consequences of the world economic crisis was one of the two main achievements of his second Premiership. The other was the stabilizing the size of Russia's population between 2008–2011 following a long period of demographic collapse that began in the 1990s.

At the United Russia Congress in Moscow on 24 September 2011, Medvedev officially proposed that Putin stand for the Presidency in 2012, an offer Putin accepted. Given United Russia's near-total dominance of Russian politics, many observers believed that Putin was all but assured of a third term. The move was expected to see Medvedev stand on the United Russia ticket in the parliamentary elections in December, with a goal of becoming Prime Minister at the end of his presidential term. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Putin published seven articles presenting his vision for the future.

After the parliamentary elections on 4 December 2011, tens of thousands Russians engaged in protests against alleged electoral fraud, the largest protests in Putin's time. Protesters criticized Putin and United Russia and demanded annulment of the election results. However, those protests, organized by the leaders of the Russian non-systemic opposition, sparked the fear of a colour revolution in society, and a number of "anti-Orange" counter-protests (the name alludes to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine) and rallies of Putin supporters were carried out, surpassing in scale the opposition protests. Putin organized a number of paramilitary groups loyal to himself and to the United Russia party in the period between 2005 and 2012.

Third presidential term (2012–present)

Putin taking the presidential oath at his 3rd inauguration ceremony, 7 May 2012

On 4 March 2012, Putin won the 2012 Russian presidential elections in the first round, with 63.6% of the vote, despite widespread accusations of vote-rigging, While efforts to make the elections transparent were publicized, including the usage of webcams in polling stations, the vote was criticized by the Russian opposition and by international observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for procedural irregularities.

Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi

Anti-Putin protests took place during and directly after the presidential campaign. The most notorious protest was the Pussy Riot performance on 21 February, and subsequent trial. Also, an estimated 8,000–20,000 protesters gathered in Moscow on 6 May, when eighty people were injured in confrontations with police, and 450 were arrested, with another 120 arrests taking place the following day.

Anti-Putin protesters march in Moscow, 4 February 2012

Putin's presidency was inaugurated in the Kremlin on 7 May 2012. On his first day as President, Putin issued 14 Presidential decrees, which are sometimes called the "May Decrees" by the media, including a lengthy one stating wide-ranging goals for the Russian economy. Other decrees concerned education, housing, skilled labor training, relations with the European Union, the defense industry, inter-ethnic relations, and other policy areas dealt with in Putin's program articles issued during the presidential campaign.

In 2012 and 2013, Putin and the United Russia party backed stricter legislation against the LGBT community, in Saint Petersburg, Archangelsk and Novosibirsk; a law against "homosexual propaganda" (which prohibits such symbols as the rainbow flag as well as published works containing homosexual content) was adopted by the State Duma in June 2013. Responding to international concerns about Russia's legislation, Putin asked critics to note that the law was a "ban on the propaganda of pedophilia and homosexuality" and he stated that homosexual visitors to the 2014 Winter Olympics should "leave the children in peace" but denied there was any "professional, career or social discrimination" against homosexuals in Russia. He publicly hugged openly bisexual ice-skater Ireen Wust during the games.

Also in June 2013, Putin attended a televised rally of the All-Russia People's Front where he was elected head of the movement, which was set up in 2011. According to journalist Steve Rosenberg, the movement is intended to "reconnect the Kremlin to the Russian people" and one day, if necessary, replace the increasingly unpopular United Russia party that currently backs Putin.

Intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea

Putin laying wreaths at a monument to the defenders of Sevastopol in World War II, 9 May 2014

Main article: 2014–15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine

In the wake of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, exiled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych put into writing his request that Putin initiate Russia's use of military forces on his behalf. On the same day, Putin requested and received authorization from the Russian Parliament to deploy Russian troops to Ukraine in response to the crisis. Russian troops then invaded and captured Crimea and also made incursions into the southeast of Ukraine to aid local separatists. By 2 March, Russian troops had complete control over Crimea. Then on 16 March Crimean status referendum was held in which, according to official results, a majority of 93 percent of voters voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia; The referendum was regarded as illegitimate by most of the international community because of the events surrounding it including the plebiscite being held while the peninsula was occupied by Russian soldiers. Thirteen members of the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of a resolution declaring the referendum invalid, but Russia vetoed it and China abstained. A United Nations General Assembly resolution was later adopted, by a vote of 100 in favor vs. 11 against with 58 abstentions, which declared the referendum invalid and affirmed Ukraine's territorial integrity. The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People called for a boycott of the referendum. As a result, several countries imposed sanctions on Russia; more followed after pro-Russian unrest spread to the south and east of Ukraine and Russia's subsequent military intervention. The economic development of Russia experienced a significant setback due to the sanctions and the concurrent fall in the world price of oil. The IMF has estimated that about half of the decline in GDP in 2015 was due to sanctions and Russia's ban on imports in response. Although Putin at the time stated that no Russian troops were active in Crimea but only "local forces of self defence" on 17 April 2014 he stated "Of course our troops stood behind Crimea's self-defence forces".

Putin in talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, 17 October 2014

Putin outlined his Crimean views on 18 March in his "Crimean speech" in which he said that the ousting of Yanukovych was a "coup". Also on 18 March Putin and the new leadership of Crimea signed a bill that led to the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Following the Crimean referendum unrest increased in eastern Ukraine apart from Crimea. In a reference to 25 May 2014 presidential elections in Ukraine, Putin indicated that the Ukrainian elections were a step in the right direction. The same day he also expressed that the pro-Russian separatists that had self-proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic should wait to hold their 11 May 2014 referendum on independence "in order to create proper conditions for this dialogue", but the Russian backed separatists held the referendum anyway on 11 May 2014, claiming that nearly 90% of voter favoured independence from Ukraine.

Putin on his first visit to Crimea since its annexation, 9 May 2014

On 26 August 2014 Putin met with Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko in Minsk where he expressed a willingness to discuss the situation. Poroshenko responded by asked that Russia halt supplying arms to the Russian backed separatist fighters. He said his country wanted a political compromise and promised the interests of Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine would be respected.

Russian-backed separatists and their supporters in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, 24 April 2015

In a mid-November ARD interview Putin indicated Russia would not allow a military defeat of the pro-Russian side in the War in Donbass. Putin also once again called the Euromaidan Revolution a political coup and claimed that by supporting President Poroshenko and his Yatsenyuk Government western governments were supporting Russophobes. In the interview Putin again admitted that during the 2014 Crimean crisis “Our armed forces blocked literally the Ukrainian forces located in Crimea, but it was not in attempt to force anyone to vote, it’s impossible to do so. It was done in order to prevent the bloodshed”.

In his annual speech on 4 December 2014 Putin stated that the March 2014 annexation of Crimean was a "historic event" that would not be reversed because Crimea is "Russia's spiritual ground".

2015 Russian military intervention in Syria

Main article: Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War

President Putin authorized Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, on the 30th of September 2015, following a formal request by the Syrian government for military help against rebel and jihadist groups. The Russian supported Syrian government forces and allies, Iran Hezbollah Iraq and their numerous militias, have achieved significant military successes since Russia's intervention, especially in 2016. Notable victories occured in the Aleppo offensive (October–December 2015), the Northern Aleppo offensive (2016), the Latakia offensive (2015-present) and around the cities of Damascus, Homs Hama and Daraa. The United States and France have criticized the Russian offensive for focusing on fighting non-Jihadist rebels fighting the Assad regime, and for not discriminating between combatants and civilians, accusations then president Medvedev said were "just not true".

Domestic policies

Main article: Domestic policies of Vladimir Putin

Putin's domestic policies, especially early in his first presidency, were aimed at creating a vertical power structure. On 13 May 2000, he issued a decree putting the 89 federal subjects of Russia into seven administrative federal districts and appointed a presidential envoy responsible for each of those districts (whose official title is Plenipotentiary Representative).

On 13 May 2000, Putin introduced seven federal districts for administrative purposes. On 19 January 2010, the 8th North Caucasian Federal District (shown here in purple) was split from Southern Federal District. On 21 March 2014, the new 9th Crimean Federal District was formed after the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation

According to Stephen White, Russia under the presidency of Putin made it clear that it had no intention of establishing a "second edition" of the American or British political system, but rather a system that was closer to Russia's own traditions and circumstances. Putin's administration has often been described as a "sovereign democracy". According to the proponents of that description, the government's actions and policies ought above all to enjoy popular support within Russia itself and not be determined from outside the country.

In July 2000, according to a law proposed by him and approved by the Federal Assembly of Russia, Putin gained the right to dismiss heads of the 89 federal subjects (there are presently several fewer federal subjects in Russia than there were in 2000). In 2004, the direct election of those heads (usually called "governors") by popular vote was replaced with a system whereby they would be nominated by the President and approved or disapproved by regional legislatures. This was seen by Putin as a necessary move to stop separatist tendencies and get rid of those governors who were connected with organised crime. This and other government actions effected under Putin's presidency have been criticised by many independent Russian media outlets and Western commentators as anti-democratic. In 2012, as proposed by Putin's successor Dmitry Medvedev, the direct election of governors was re-introduced.

During his first term in office, Putin persecuted some of the Yeltsin-era oligarchs, as well as his political opponents, resulting in the exile or imprisonment of such people as Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky; other oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich and Arkady Rotenberg soon joined Putin's camp.

Putin succeeded in codifying land law and tax law and promulgated new codes on labour, administrative, criminal, commercial and civil procedural law. Under Medvedev's presidency, Putin's government implemented some key reforms in the area of state security, the Russian police reform and the Russian military reform.

Economic, industrial, and energy policies

See also: Economy of Russia, Russian financial crisis (2014–present), Great Recession in Russia, and Energy policy of Russia

Russian GDP since the end of the Soviet Union

Historical crude oil prices. Economic growth in Putin's first two terms was fueled by the 2000s commodities boom, including high oil prices

Fueled by the 2000s commodities boom including record high oil prices (in nominal terms), under the Putin administration from 2001 to 2007, the economy made real gains of an average 7% per year, making it the 7th largest economy in the world in purchasing power. Russia's nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 6 fold, climbing from 22nd to 10th largest in the world. In 2007, Russia's GDP exceeded that of Russian SFSR in 1990, meaning it overcame the devastating consequences of the 1998 financial crisis and preceding recession in the 1990s.

During Putin's eight years in office, industry grew substantially, as did production, construction, real incomes, credit, and the middle class. Putin has also been praised for eliminating widespread barter and thus boosting the economy. Inflation remained a problem however.

In 2001, Putin obtained approval for a flat tax rate of 13%; the corporate rate of tax was also reduced from 35 percent to 24 percent; Small businesses also get better treatment. The old system, with high tax rates, has been replaced by a new system where companies can choose either a 6-percent tax on gross revenue or a 15-percent tax on profits. The overall tax burden is lower in Russia than in most European countries.

Putin lead the effort in creating the so-called National champions, who were vertically integrated companies in strategic sectors that are expected not only to seek profit, but also to "advance the interests of the nation". Examples of such companies include Gazprom, Rosneft and United Aircraft Corporation.

A fund for oil revenue allowed Russia to repay all of the Soviet Union's debts by 2005. Payments from the fuel and energy sector accounted for nearly half of the federal budget's revenues. The large majority of Russia's exports are made up of raw materials and fertilizers, although exports as a whole accounted for only 8.7% of the GDP in 2007, compared to 20% in 2000.

After 18 years of trying, Russia joined the World Trade Organization on 22 August 2012. However, there were few immediate economic benefits evident from that WTO membership.

Under Putin, Russia strengthened its position as a key oil and gas supplier to much of Europe

Under Putin as President and Premier, most of the world's largest automotive companies opened plants in Russia, which Putin encouraged via tax incentives, as well as protectionist measures which discouraged imports In 2005, Putin initiated an industry consolidation programme to bring the main aircraft producing companies under a single umbrella organization, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The aim was to optimize production lines and minimise losses. The UAC is one of the so-called national champions and comparable to EADS in Europe.

In a similar fashion, Putin created the United Shipbuilding Corporation in 2007, which led to the recovery of shipbuilding in Russia. Since 2006, much efforts were put into consolidation and development of the Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation, which led to the renewed construction of nuclear power plants in Russia. In 2007, the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation was established, aimed to boost the science and technology and high-tech industry in Russia.

In the decade following 2000, energy in Russia helped transform the country, especially oil and gas energy. This transformation promoted Russia's well-being and international influence, and the country was frequently described in the media as an energy superpower. Putin oversaw growing taxation of oil and gas exports which helped finance the budget, while the oil industry of Russia, production, and exports all significantly grew.

Putin sought to increase Russia's share of the European energy market by building submerged gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine and other countries which were often seen as non-reliable transit partners by Russia, especially following Russia-Ukraine gas disputes of the late 2000s (decade). Russia also undermined the rival pipeline project Nabucco by buying the Turkmen gas and redirecting it into Russian pipelines.

On the other hand, Russia diversified its export markets by building the Trans-Siberian oil pipeline to the markets of China, Japan and Korea, as well as the Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok gas pipeline in the Russian Far East. Russia has also recently built several major oil and gas refineries, plants and ports. Additionally, Putin has presided over construction of major hydropower plants, such as the Bureya Dam and the Boguchany Dam, as well as the restoration of the nuclear industry of Russia, with 1 trillion rubles ($42.7 billion) allocated from the federal budget to nuclear power and industry development before 2015. A large number of nuclear power stations and units are currently being constructed by the state corporation Rosatom in Russia and abroad.

On 21 May 2014, Russia and China signed a $400 billion gas deal

A construction program of floating nuclear power plants will provide power to Russian Arctic coastal cities and gas rigs, starting in 2012. The Arctic policy of Russia also includes an offshore oilfield in the Pechora Sea is expected to start producing in early 2012, with the world's first ice-resistant oil platform and first offshore Arctic platform. In August 2011 Rosneft, a Russian government-operated oil company, signed a deal with ExxonMobil for Arctic oil production. "The scale of the investment is very large. It's scary to utter such huge figures" said Putin on signing the deal.

The construction of a pipeline at a cost of $77bn, to be jointly funded by Russia and China, was signed off on by President Putin in Shanghai on 21 May 2014. It would be the biggest construction project in the world for the following 4 years, Putin said at the time. On completion in 4 to 6 years, the pipeline would deliver natural gas from the state-majority-owned Gazprom to China's state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation for the next 30 years, in a deal worth $400bn.

In 2014, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project named Putin their Person of the Year Award for furthering corruption and organized crime.

2014 Financial Crisis and economic downturn

In the second half of 2014, the Russian currency, the ruble collapsed. The depreciation was caused by the decline in the price of oil, Russia's main export, as well as international sanctions placed on Russia as a result of its military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. These events in turn led to loss of investor confidence and capital flight. At the time Putin argued that Russia was not in crisis although he cancelled holidays for his key ministers.

Russia, however, reacted with its own sanctions against the West, and as a result, some Russian domestic industries have thrived, showing significant increases in output, such as the dairy and meat production sectors. Additionally, to avoid isolation over the sanctions, Putin developed closer economic ties with Eastern countries. In October 2014, energy, trade and finance agreements with China worth $25 billion were signed. The following year, a $400 billion 30-year natural gas supply agreement was also signed with China.

Economic troubles persisted into 2015, when the economy shrank by 3.7%, making Russia one of the top ten worst performing emerging economies in that year.

The Russian average wage has significantly declined and was reported by The Moscow Times to be 500 USD in the spring of 2015.

Environmental policy

Main articles: Environment of Russia and Environmental issues in Russia

Putin uses a tranquilizer gun to sedate an Amur tiger in the Ussuri Nature Reserve in Primorsky Krai, 2008

In 2004, President Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol treaty designed to reduce greenhouse gases. However Russia did not face mandatory cuts, because the Kyoto Protocol limits emissions to a percentage increase or decrease from 1990 levels and Russia's greenhouse-gas emissions fell well below the 1990 baseline due to a drop in economic output after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Putin personally supervises a number of protection programmes for rare and endangered animals in Russia:

• The Amur Tiger Programme
• The White Whale Programme
• The Polar Bear Programme
• The Snow Leopard Programme

Religious policy

Main article: Religion in Russia

Putin with religious leaders of Russia, 2001

Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism, defined by law as Russia's traditional religions and a part of Russia's historical heritage enjoyed limited state support in the Putin era. The vast construction and restoration of churches, started in the 1990s, continued under Putin, and the state allowed the teaching of religion in schools (parents are provided with a choice for their children to learn the basics of one of the traditional religions or secular ethics). His approach to religious policy has been characterised as one of support for religious freedoms, but also the attempt to unify different religions under the authority of the state. In 2012, Putin was honored in Bethlehem and a street was named after him.

Putin visiting the Tuva Republic, Siberia, 2007

Putin regularly attends the most important services of the Russian Orthodox Church on the main Orthodox Christian holidays. He established a good relationship with Patriarchs of the Russian Church, the late Alexy II of Moscow and the current Kirill of Moscow. As President, he took an active personal part in promoting the Act of Canonical Communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, signed 17 May 2007 that restored relations between the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia after the 80-year schism.

Putin and United Russia enjoy high electoral support in the national republics of Russia, in particular in the Muslim-majority republics of Povolzhye and the North Caucasus.

Under Putin, the Hasidic FJCR became increasingly influential within the Jewish community, partly due to the influence of Federation-supporting businessmen mediated through their alliances with Putin, notably Lev Leviev and Roman Abramovich. According to the JTA, Putin is popular amongst the Russian Jewish community, who see him as a force for stability. Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said Putin "paid great attention to the needs of our community and related to us with a deep respect."

According to Julia Ioffe, Putin has allowed the de facto implementation of Sharia law in Chechnya by Ramzan Kadyrov, including polygamy and enforced veiling.

Military development

Main article: Russian military reform

Putin in the cockpit of a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber before the flight, August 2005

Aboard battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy during Northern Fleet exercise in 2005

The resumption of long-distance flights of Russia's strategic bombers was followed by the announcement by Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov during his meeting with Putin on 5 December 2007, that 11 ships, including the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov, would take part in the first major navy sortie into the Mediterranean since Soviet times. The sortie was to be backed up by 47 aircraft, including strategic bombers.

While from the early 2000s (decade) Russia started pumping more money into its military and defence industry, it was only in 2008 that the full-scale Russian military reform began, aiming to modernize Russian Armed Forces and making them significantly more effective. The reform was largely carried by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during Medvedev's Presidency, under supervision of both Putin, as the Head of Government, and Medvedev, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces.

Key elements of the reform included reducing the armed forces to a strength of one million; reducing the number of officers; centralising officer training from 65 military schools into 10 'systemic' military training centres; creating a professional NCO corps; reducing the size of the central command; introducing more civilian logistics and auxiliary staff; elimination of cadre-strength formations; reorganising the reserves; reorganising the army into a brigade system; reorganising air forces into an air base system instead of regiments.

The number of Russia's military districts was reduced to just 4. The term of draft service was reduced from two years to one, which put an end to the old harassment traditions in Russian army, since all conscripts became very close by draft age. The gradual transition to the majority professional army by the late 2010s was announced, and a large programme of supplying the Armed Forces with new military equipment and ships was started. The Russian Space Forces were replaced on 1 December 2011 with the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.

In spite of Putin's call for major investments in strategic nuclear weapons, these will fall well below the New START limits due to the retirement of aging systems.

Putin has also sought to increase Russian territorial claims in the Arctic and its military presence here. In August 2007, Russian expedition Arktika 2007, part of research related to the 2001 Russian territorial extension claim, planted a flag on the seabed below the North Pole. Both Russian submarines and troops deployed in the Arctic have been increasing.

Human rights policy

Main article: Human rights in Russia

See also: Russian foreign agent law, Internet Restriction Bill, and Dima Yakovlev Law

Russian opposition on the March of Peace against annexation of Crimea, Moscow, March 2014 　 related media

In November 2001, Putin attended a Civic Forum sponsored by his administration with the purpose of bridging the chasm between state officials and grassroots activists including former Soviet dissident and Helsinki Watch, Ludmila Alekseeva.

A year later, Putin met with a similar group on International Human Rights Day and supported them:

Protecting civil rights and freedoms is a highly relevant issue for Russia. You know that next year will see the tenth anniversary of our constitution. It declares the basic human rights and freedoms to be the highest value and it enshrines them as self implementing standards. I must say that this is of course a great achievement.

According to Human Rights Watch since May 2012, when Vladimir Putin was reelected as president, Russia has enacted many restrictive laws, started inspections of nongovernmental organizations, harassed, intimidated, and imprisoned political activists, and started to restrict critics. The new laws include the so-called “foreign agents” law, which is widely regarded as overbroad by including Russian human rights organizations which receive some international grant funding, the treason law, and the assembly law which penalizes many expressions of dissent.

Foreign policy

Main article: Foreign policy of Vladimir Putin

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

Addressing Olympic Committee in Guatemala, 2007, in English

As of late 2013, Russian-American relations were at a low point. The United States canceled a summit (for the first time since 1960), after Putin gave asylum to Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information from the NSA.

Washington regarded Russia as obstructionist regarding Syria and Iran. In turn, those nations have looked to Russia (and China) for protection against the United States.

Europe needs Russian oil, but worries about interference in the affairs of Eastern Europe. Russia remains angry over the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. Central Asia sees Moscow as a former overlord, which is too powerful to ignore, even as countries assist American involvement in Afghanistan.

In Asia, India has moved from a close ally of the Soviet Union to a partner of the United States with strong nuclear and commercial ties. Japan and Russia remain at odds over the ownership of the Kurile islands; this dispute has hindered cooperation for decades. China has moved from a client state of Russia in the 1950s, to a bitter antagonist in the 1960s and 1970s, to a situation where its economic powerhouse sees Russia as a source of raw materials, as well as an ally in the United Nations.

However, Putin has won international support for sport in Russia. In 2007, he led a successful effort on behalf of Sochi (located along the Black Sea near the border between Georgia and Russia) for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics, the first Winter Olympic Games to ever be hosted by Russia. Likewise, in 2008, the city of Kazan won the bid for the 2013 Summer Universiade, and on 2 December 2010 Russia won the right to host the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup, also for the first time in Russian history. In 2013, Putin stated that gay athletes would not face any discrimination at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. US President Barack Obama did not attend the 2014 Winter Olympics, joining other western leaders in the apparent symbolic boycott.

Relations with Europe, NATO, and its member nations

Putin with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, in 2008

See also: NATO–Russia relations, Russia–United States relations, and Anti-American sentiment in Russia

Under Putin, Russia's relationships with NATO and the U.S. have passed through several stages. When Putin first became President, the relations were cautious. After the 9/11 attacks when Putin quickly supported the U.S. in the War on Terror, the opportunity for partnership appeared. However, the U.S. responded by further expansion of NATO to Russia's borders and by unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Since 2003, when Russia did not support the Iraq War and when Putin became ever more distant from the West in his internal and external policies, the relations continued to deteriorate. According to Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen, the narrative of the mainstream U.S. media, following that of the White House, became anti-Putin. In an interview with Michael Stürmer, Putin was quoted saying that there were three questions which most concerned Russia and Eastern Europe: namely, the status of Kosovo, the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and American plans to build missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and suggested that all three were linked. In Putin's view, concessions on one of these questions on the Western side might be met with concessions from Russia on another. In a January 2007 interview, Putin said Russia is in favor of a democratic multipolar world and of strengthening the systems of international law.

Bush and Putin in 2007

In February 2007, Putin criticized what he called the United States' monopolistic dominance in global relations, and "almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations". He said the result of it is that "no one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them. Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race". This came to be known as the Munich Speech, and former NATO secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called the speech, "disappointing and not helpful." The months following Putin's Munich Speech were marked by tension and a surge in rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic. Both Russian and American officials, however, denied the idea of a new Cold War.

Putin publicly opposed plans for the U.S. missile shield in Europe, and presented President George W. Bush with a counterproposal on 7 June 2007 which was declined. Russia suspended its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe on 11 December 2007.

Vladimir Putin strongly opposed Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, warning supporters of that precedent that it would de facto destroy the whole system of international relations.

Putin had friendly relations with former American President George W. Bush, and many European leaders. Putin's "cooler" and "more business-like" relationship with Germany's current Chancellor, Angela Merkel is often attributed to Merkel's upbringing in the former DDR, where Putin was stationed when he was a KGB agent. Relations were further strained after the 2014-15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the Annexation of Crimea. In 2014, Russia was suspended from the G8 group as a result of its annexation of Crimea.

In June 2015, Putin told an Italian newspaper that Russia has no intention of attacking NATO:

As for some countries’ concerns about Russia's possible aggressive actions, I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia."

Relations between Russia and the United Kingdom deteriorated when the United Kingdom granted political asylum to Putin's former patron, oligarch Boris Berezovsky in 2003. This deterioration was intensified by allegations that the British were spying and making secret payments to pro-democracy and human rights groups. The end of 2006 brought more strained relations in the wake of the death by polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London. In 2007, the crisis in relations continued with expulsion of four Russian envoys over Russia's refusal to extradite former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi to face charges in the alleged murder of Litvinenko. Mirroring the British actions, Russia expelled UK diplomats and took other retaliatory steps.

Litvinenko inquiry

In 2015-16 the British Government conducted an inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko. Its report was released in January 2016. According to the report, "The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin." The report outlined some possible motives for the murder, including Litvinenko's public statements and books about the alleged involvement of the FSB in mass murder, and what was "undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Putin and Litvinenko, led to the murder. The Kremlin dismissed the Inquiry as "a joke" and "whitewash".

Relations with South and East Asia

See also: India–Russia relations, People's Republic of China-Russia relations, and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao at the 2003 APEC Summit in Thailand

In 2012, Putin wrote an article in the Hindu newspaper, saying that "The Declaration on Strategic Partnership between India and Russia signed in October 2000 became a truly historic step". Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during Putin's 2012 visit to India: "President Putin is a valued friend of India and the original architect of the India-Russia strategic partnership".

Putin's Russia maintains positive relations with other BRIC countries. The country has sought to strengthen ties especially with the People's Republic of China by signing the Treaty of Friendship as well as building the Trans-Siberian oil pipeline geared toward growing Chinese energy needs. The mutual-security cooperation of the two countries and their central Asian neighbours is facilitated by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The announcement made during the SCO summit that Russia resumes on a permanent basis the long-distance patrol flights of its strategic bombers (suspended in 1992) in the light of joint Russian-Chinese military exercises, first-ever in history held on Russian territory, made some experts believe that Putin is inclined to set up an anti-NATO bloc or the Asian version of OPEC. When presented with the suggestion that "Western observers are already likening the SCO to a military organisation that would stand in opposition to NATO", Putin answered that "this kind of comparison is inappropriate in both form and substance".

Relations with Middle Eastern and North African countries

On 16 October 2007, Putin visited Iran to participate in the Second Caspian Summit in Tehran, where he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This was the first visit of a Soviet or Russian leader to Iran since Joseph Stalin's participation in the Tehran Conference in 1943, and thus marked a significant event in Iran-Russia relations. At a press conference after the summit Putin said that "all our (Caspian) states have the right to develop their peaceful nuclear programmes without any restrictions".

Putin with Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 2007

Subsequently, under Medvedev's presidency, Iran-Russia relations were uneven: Russia did not fulfill the contract of selling to Iran the S-300, one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently existing. However, Russian specialists completed the construction of Iran and the Middle East's first civilian nuclear power facility, the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, and Russia has continuously opposed the imposition of economic sanctions on Iran by the U.S. and the EU, as well as warning against a military attack on Iran. Putin was quoted as describing Iran as a "partner", though he expressed concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme.

In April 2008, Putin became the first Russian President who visited Libya. Putin condemned the foreign military intervention of Libya, he called UN resolution as "defective and flawed," and added "It allows everything. It resembles medieval calls for crusades." Upon the death of Muammar Gaddafi, Putin called it as "planned murder" by the US, saying: "They showed to the whole world how he (Gaddafi) was killed," and "There was blood all over. Is that what they call a democracy?"

Putin meets with Red Army veterans in Israel

Regarding Syria, from 2000 to 2010 Russia sold around $1.5 billion worth of arms to that country, making Damascus Moscow's seventh-largest client. During the Syrian civil war, Russia threatened to veto any sanctions against the Syrian government, and continued to supply arms to the regime.

Putin opposed any foreign intervention. In June 2012, in Paris, he rejected the statement of French President Francois Hollande who called on Bashar Al-Assad to step down. Putin echoed the argument of the Assad regime that anti-regime '’militants'’ were responsible for much of the bloodshed. He also talked about previous NATO interventions and their results, and asked "What is happening in Libya, in Iraq? Did they become safer? Where are they heading? Nobody has an answer".

On 11 September 2013, an opinion, written by Putin, was published in the New York Times regarding international events related to the United States, Russia and Syria. Putin subsequently helped to arrange for Syria to disarm itself of chemical weapons. He has subsequently taken an even stronger pro-Assadist stance. Some analysts have summarized Putin as being allied with Shiites and Alawites in the Middle East.

Relations with post-Soviet states

See also: Color revolutions, Russia–Ukraine gas disputes, Russia–Ukraine relations, Belarus–Russia relations, Georgia–Russia relations, Kyrgyzstan–Russia relations, and Eurasian Union

A series of so-called color revolutions in the post-Soviet states, namely the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005, led to frictions in the relations of those countries with Russia. In December 2004, Putin criticised the Rose and Orange revolutions, saying: "If you have permanent revolutions you risk plunging the post-Soviet space into endless conflict".

Meeting with Mikheil Saakashvili, then-president of Georgia, in 2008

A number of economic disputes erupted between Russia and some neighbours, such as the Russian import ban of Georgian wine. And in some cases, such as the Russia–Ukraine gas disputes, the economic conflicts affected other European countries, for example when a January 2009 gas dispute with Ukraine led state-controlled Russian company Gazprom to halt its deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine, which left a number of European states, to which Ukraine transits Russian gas, with serious shortages of natural gas in January 2009.

The plans of Georgia and Ukraine to become members of NATO have caused some tensions between Russia and those states. In 2010, Ukraine did abandon these plans. Putin allegedly declared at a NATO-Russia summit in 2008 that if Ukraine joined NATO Russia could contend to annex the Ukrainian East and Crimea. At the summit he told US President George W. Bush that "Ukraine is not even a state!" while the following year Putin referred to Ukraine as "Little Russia". Following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution in March 2014, the Russian Federation annexed Crimea. According to Putin this was done because "Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia". After the Russian annexion of Crimea he said that Ukraine includes "regions of Russia's historic south" and "was created on a whim by the Bolsheviks". He went on to declare that the February 2014 ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had been orchestrated by the West as an attempt to weaken Russia. "Our Western partners have crossed a line. They behaved rudely, irresponsibly and unprofessionally," he said, adding that the people who had come to power in Ukraine were "nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites". In a July 2014 speech midst an armed insurgency in Eastern Ukraine Putin stated he would use Russia's "entire arsenal" and "the right of self defence" to protect Russian speakers outside Russia.

In late August 2014, Putin stated: "People who have their own views on history and the history of our country may argue with me, but it seems to me that the Russian and Ukrainian peoples are practically one people". After making a similar claim late December 2015 he stated: "the Ukrainian culture, as well as Ukrainian literature, surely has a source of its own".

The Eurasian Union with its current members: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan

In August 2008, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili attempted to restore control over the breakaway South Ossetia. However, the Georgian military was soon defeated in the resulting 2008 South Ossetia War after regular Russian forces entered South Ossetia and then Georgia proper, then also opened a second front in the other Georgian breakaway province of Abkhazia against with Abkhazian forces. During this conflict, according to French diplomat Jean-David Levitte, Putin intended to depose the Georgian President and declared: "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls".

Despite existing or past tensions between Russia and most of the post-Soviet states, Putin has followed the policy of Eurasian integration. Putin endorsed the idea of a Eurasian Union in 2011, The concept was proposed by the President of Kazakhstan in 1994. On 18 November 2011, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement setting a target of establishing the Eurasian Union by 2015. The Eurasian Union was established on 1 January 2015.

Relations with Australia, Latin America, and others

See also: Australia–Russia relations, Russia–Venezuela relations, Cuba–Russia relations, and Brazil–Russia relations

Putin and his successor Medvedev enjoyed warm relations with the late Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Much of this has been through the sale of military equipment; since 2005, Venezuela has purchased more than $4 billion worth of arms from Russia. In September 2008, Russia sent Tupolev Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela to carry out training flights. In November 2008, both countries held a joint naval exercise in the Caribbean. Earlier in 2000, Putin had re-established stronger ties with Fidel Castro's Cuba.

BRICS leaders at the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, 15 November 2014

In September 2007, Putin visited Indonesia and in doing so became the first Russian leader to visit the country in more than 50 years. In the same month, Putin also attended the APEC meeting held in Sydney where he met with John Howard, who was the Australian Prime Minister at the time, and signed a uranium trade deal for Australia to sell uranium to Russia. This was the first visit by a Russian president to Australia.

Speeches

Addresses to the Federal Assembly

During his terms in office Putin has made eight annual addresses to the Federal Assembly of Russia, speaking on the situation in Russia and on guidelines of the internal and foreign policy of the State (as prescribed in Article 84 of the Constitution). On 18 March 2014 Putin made a well-publicized speech about the situation in Crimea. On 24 October 2014 he also spoke Valdai speech.

Speeches abroad

Putin making his Munich speech in 2007

One of the most important and widely publicized speeches of Putin made abroad was made on 10 February 2007 on the Munich Conference on Security Policy, and hence became known as the Munich speech. It was dubbed by the press to be "the turning point of the Russian foreign policy", and western observers called it the most tough speech from a leader of Russia since the time of the Cold War. The speech was also seen as been made by Putin to openly assert a reprised role of Russia in international politics that would be close to that of the Soviet Union; a return to this role is seen as one of the achievements of Putin's presidency.

In the Munich speech Putin called for upholding the principle "security for everyone is security for all", criticized the policies of the United States and NATO, condemned the unipolar model of international relations as flawed and lacking moral basis, condemned the "hypocrisy" of countries trying to teach democracy to Russia, condemned the domination of hard power and enforcement by the U.S. norms and laws to other countries bypassing international law and substitution of the United Nations by NATO or the EU. Putin also called for a stop to the militarization of space and questioned the plans to deploy American missile defense in Europe as threatening strategic nuclear balance and spurring a new arms race. He also claimed that the countries dubbed as rogue states by the West were not going to be capable of threatening Europe or the U.S. with ballistic missiles in the foreseeable future. His speech was criticized by some attendant delegates at the conference, including former NATO secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer who called it "disappointing and not helpful."

Outdoor speeches

With Dmitry Medvedev on the day of the Russian presidential election, 2008. The soundtrack is Lubeh, Putin's favourite band

Notable Putin's outdoor speeches include his addresses during the Victory Day Moscow Military Parades one every 9 May in the years between 2000 and 2007. Under Putin's presidency and premiership, the old Soviet tradition of 9 May Parades, which had been in decline in 1990s, was gradually restored in full grandeur. Since the 2008 Moscow Victory Day Parade the armoured fighting vehicles resumed regular taking part in the Red Square parades. Putin often used the Victory Day occasion to discuss Russia's military development and Russia's security and foreign affairs. For example, he said on 9 May 2007 that "threats are not becoming fewer but are only transforming and changing their appearance. These new threats, just as under the Third Reich, show the same contempt for human life and the same aspiration to establish an exclusive dictate over the world."

During his 2012 presidential campaign Putin made a single outdoor public speech at the 100,000-strong rally of his supporters in the Luzhniki Stadium on 23 February, Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day. In the speech he called not to betray the Motherland, but to love her, to unite around Russia and to work together for the good, to overcome the existing problems. He said that the foreign interference into Russian affairs should not be allowed, that Russia has its own free will. He compared the political situation at the moment (when fears were spread in the Russian society that 2011–2012 Russian protests could instigate a color revolution directed from abroad) with the First Fatherland War of 1812, reminding that its 200th anniversary and the anniversary of the Battle of Borodino would be celebrated in 2012.Putin cited Lermontov's poem Borodino and ended the speech with Vyacheslav Molotov's famous Great Patriotic War slogan "The Victory Shall Be Ours!" ("Победа будет за нами!").

On the post-election celebration rally, while making an acceptance speech, Putin was for the first time ever seen with tears in his eyes (later he explained that "it was windy"). He said to a 110,000-strong audience: "I told you we would win and we won!".

Public image

Main article: Public image of Vladimir Putin

Ratings, polls, and assessments

Putin's (red) and Medvedev's (blue) Endorsement Index

Putin's approval (blue) and disapproval (red) ratings 1999-2014

According to public opinion surveys in June 2007, Putin's approval rating was 81%, the second highest of any leader in the world that year, following British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who received a 93% public approval rating in September 1997. In January 2013, Putin's approval rating fell to 62%, the lowest point since 2000 and a ten-point drop over two years. In May 2014 his approval rating rose to 85.9%, a six-year high. Observers see Putin's high approval ratings as a consequence of the significant improvements in living standards and Russia's reassertion of itself on the world scene during his presidency. One analysis attributed Putin's popularity, in part, to state-owned or state-controlled television. A 2005 survey showed that three times as many Russians felt the country was "more democratic" under Putin than it was during the Yeltsin or Gorbachev years, and the same proportion thought human rights were better under Putin than under Yeltsin.

Putin was Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2007. In April 2008, he was put on the Time 100 most influential people in the world list. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, he was ranked as the world's most powerful person by Forbes.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev credited Putin with having "pulled Russia out of chaos", but has also criticized Putin for restricting freedom of press and for seeking the third term in the presidential elections. According to opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, Putin is turning Russia into a "raw materials colony" of China.

Criticism of Putin has been widespread especially over the Internet in Russia, and it is said that the Russian youth organisations finance a full "network" of pro-government bloggers. In the U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks in late 2010, American diplomats said Putin's Russia had become "a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a virtual mafia state." Putin called it "slanderous".

File:Saint Petersburg rally 2012-02-25 (not in a row).jpg

Protest against Putin in Saint Petersburg during the 2012 presidential campaign, including a sign showing an older Putin in Leonid Brezhnev's parade uniform implying another presidential run in 2024

By Western commentators and the Russian opposition, Putin has been described as a dictator. Putin biographer Masha Gessen has stated that "Putin is a dictator," comparing him to Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. Former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband once described Putin as a "ruthless dictator" whose "days are numbered." U.S. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Putin "a real threat to the stability and peace of the world." Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote: "For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one." The portrayal of Putin in the Western media has been described by others as being a politically motivated distortion of facts. According to American scholar of Russian studies Stephen F. Cohen, "since the early 2000s, the media have followed a different leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts". The British journalist Seumas Milne argues that "the demonisation of Russia risks paving the way for war".

In the fall of 2011, the anti-Putin opposition movement in Russia became more visible, with street protests against allegedly falsified parliamentary elections (in favor of Putin's party, United Russia) cropping up across major Russian cities. Following Putin's re-election in March 2012, the movement ran out of steam, mainly for two reasons: lack of common positive programme other than topple Putin and the increased crackdown on street rallies. In fact, observers noted the protests resulted in what was not intended: instead of liberalization, the government policy grew more conservative.

After yet another round of EU and U.S. sanctions against Russian officials as a result of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Putin's approval rating reached a record high of 87 percent, according to the results of a survey published on 6 August 2014 by the independent Levada Center pollster.

Personal image

Main article: Public image of Vladimir Putin

Driving an F1 race car, 2010 (see video)

Singing "Blueberry Hill" for charity

A scene from the Superputin comics

Putin has an outdoor, sporty, tough guy public image, demonstrating his physical prowess and taking part in unusual or dangerous acts, such as extreme sports and interaction with wild animals. For example, in 2007, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge photograph of a bare-chested Putin vacationing in the Siberian mountains under the headline: "Be Like Putin."

Photo ops during his various adventures are part of a public relations approach that, according to Wired, "deliberately cultivates the macho, take-charge superhero image". Some of the activities have been criticised for being staged.

Notable examples of Putin's macho adventures include: flying military jets, demonstrating his martial art skills, riding horses, rafting, fishing and swimming in a cold Siberian river (doing all that mostly bare-chested), descending in a deepwater submersible, tranquilizing tigers with a tranquiliser gun, tranquilizing polar bears, riding a motorbike, co-piloting a firefighting plane to dump water on a raging fire, shooting darts at whales from a crossbow for eco-tracking, driving a race car, scuba diving at an archaeological site, attempting to lead endangered cranes in a motorized hang glider, and catching big fish.

On 11 December 2010, at a concert organized for a children's charity in Saint Petersburg, Putin sang "Blueberry Hill" with Maceo Parker's jazz band and played a little piano of it and of the Russian patriotic song "С чего начинается Родина" from his favourite spy movie The Shield and the Sword. After that he took part in singing of a Russian song about cosmonauts, "Grass by the Home".

Putin's painting "Узор на заиндевевшем окне" (A Pattern on a Hoarfrost-Encrusted Window), which he had painted during the Christmas Fair on 26 December 2008, became the top lot at the charity auction in Saint Petersburg and sold for 37 million rubles.

There are a large number of songs about Putin. Some of the well-known include: "[I Want] A Man Like Putin" by Singing Together, "Horoscope (Putin, Don't Piss!)" by Uma2rman, "Go Hard Like Vladimir Putin" by K. King and Beni Maniaci, "VVP" by Tajik singer Tolibjon Kurbankhanov, "Our Madhouse is Voting for Putin" by Working Faculty and "A Song About Putin" by the Russian Airborne Troops band. There is also "Putin khuilo!", the song, originally emerged as chants Ukrainian football fans and spread in Ukraine (among supporters Euromaidan), then in other countries.

Putin's name and image are widely used in advertisement and product branding. Among the Putin-branded products are Putinka vodka, the PuTin brand of canned food, the Gorbusha Putina caviar and a collection of T-shirts with his image.

Putin also is a subject of Russian jokes and chastushki, such as "[Before Putin] There Was No Orgasm" featured in the comedy film The Day of Elections. There is a meta-joke that, since the coming of Putin to power, all the classic jokes about a smart yet rude boy called Vovochka (Russian diminutive from Vladimir) have suddenly become political jokes.

Putin features in the colouring book for children Vova and Dima (presented on his 59th birthday), where he and Dmitry Medvedev are drawn as good-behaving little boys, and in the Superputin online comics series, where Putin and Medvedev are portrayed first as superheroes, and then as a troll and an orc in the World of Warcraft.

A Russian movie called A Kiss not for Press was premiered in 2008 on DVD. The movie is said to be based on biography of Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila.

Putinisms

Asserting that the Russian non-systemic opposition work for foreign interests: Come to me, Bandar-logs!

During annual Q&A conference

Putin has produced a large number of aphorisms and catch-phrases, known as putinisms. Many of them were first made during his annual Q&A conferences, where Putin answered questions from journalists and other people in the studio, as well as from Russians throughout the country, who either phoned in or spoke from studios and outdoor sites across Russia. Putin is known for his often tough and sharp language, often alluding at Russian jokes and folk sayings.

Personal life

Family

See also: Lyudmila Putina

First ladies Bella Kocharyan, Laura Bush, and Lyudmila Putina in Moscow, 2003

On 28 July 1983 Putin married Kaliningrad-born Lyudmila Shkrebneva, at that time an undergraduate student of the Spanish branch of the philology department of the Leningrad State University and a former Aeroflot flight attendant. They lived together in Germany from 1985 to 1990. During this time, according to BND archives, a German spy befriended Putina, who said that Putin beat her and had love affairs. When the couple left Germany in 1990 it was rumoured that Putin had left behind an illegitimate child.

Mrs. Putin was rarely seen with her husband and media reported rumours that the couple had separated.

Putin had been linked by newspapers with other women, including gymnast Alina Kabayeva and ex-spy Anna Chapman. These rumours were denied. Putin and Lyudmila announced on 6 June 2013 that their marriage was over. The Kremlin confirmed on 1 April 2014 the divorce had been finalised.

Putin with family in Primorsky Krai, Russian Far East, 2002

Putin and his ex-wife have two daughters, Mariya Putina (born 28 April 1985 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) and Yekaterina Putina (born 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany). The daughters grew up in East Germany and attended the German School in Moscow until his appointment as Prime Minister. After that they studied international economics at the Finance Academy in Moscow, although it was not officially reported due to security reasons. Official sources such as Pravda claim they started their studies at St Petersburg State University, with Mariya at the biology and geology department and Yekaterina at "the oriental studies section of the university's philological department. It is the most prestigious section of the department that graduates future diplomats."

The Sunday Times has published one picture of Mariya with her parents.

Putin with Alina Kabayeva

According to an article in the newspaper De Pers, Mariya is married to a native of the Netherlands, Jorrit Faassen. The couple live in Voorschoten, Netherlands. Several sources claim that Yekaterina is also married after a November 2012 wedding

Putin's own comment in a televised interview is that "both his daughters live in Moscow, where they're combining their studies with part-time work. “I’m proud of them”, said Putin.

Putin's close friend and judo partner Arkady Rotenberg

One of Vladimir Putin's relatives is Viktor Medvedchuk – the Ukrainian business oligarch influential until the 2004 Orange Revolution. Putin became the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter Darina in 2004. The two maintain regular relations since, with their meetings sometimes covered by the Russian state-controlled TV channels.

Another relative is Roman Putin, CEO of Putin Consulting, a firm aiming "to facilitate entrance into the Russian market, to minimize the transaction and administrative barriers, and to ensure complex business security".

Personal wealth and residences

Figures released during the legislative election of 2007 put Putin's wealth at approximately 3.7 million rubles (US$150,000) in bank accounts, a private 77.4-square-meter (833 sq ft) apartment in Saint Petersburg, 260 shares of Bank Saint Petersburg (with a December 2007 market price $5.36 per share) and two 1960s-era Volga M21 cars that he inherited from his father and does not register for on-road use. In 2012 Putin reported an income of 3.6 million rubles ($113,000). This has led opponents, such as politician Boris Nemtsov, to question how Putin can afford certain possessions, such as his 11 luxury watches worth an estimated $700,000.

"Putin's Palace" allegedly built for him

Putin's purported 2006 income totalled 2 million rubles (approximately $80,000). According to the data Putin did not make it into the 100 wealthiest Duma candidates of his own United Russia party.

Unconfirmed claims by some Russian opposition politicians and journalists allege that Putin secretly possesses a large fortune (as much as $70 billion) via successive ownership of stakes in a number of Russian companies. Asked at a press conference on 14 February 2008 whether he was the richest person in Europe, as some newspapers claimed; and if so, to state the source of his wealth, Putin said "This is plain chatter, not worthy discussion, plain bosh. They have picked this in their noses and have smeared this across their pieces of paper. This is how I view this."

Putin arriving at the 14th International Biker Rally in Sevastopol, Crimea, 24 July 2010

Not long after he returned from his KGB service in Dresden, East Germany, Putin built a dacha in Solovyovka on the eastern shore of Lake Komsomolskoye on the Karelian Isthmus in Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast, near St. Petersburg. The dacha had burned down in 1996. Putin built a new one identical to the original and was joined by a group of seven friends who built dachas beside his. In the fall of 1996, the group formally registered their fraternity as a co-operative society, calling it Ozero (Lake) and turning it into a gated community.

As President and then Prime-Minister, apart from the Moscow Kremlin and the White House, Putin has used numerous official residences throughout the country. In August 2012 Nemtsov listed 20 villas and palaces, nine of which were built during Putin's 12 years in power.

Barack Obama meets with Putin at his dacha outside Moscow, July 2009

Some of the residences include: Gorki-9 near Moscow, Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, Dolgiye Borody in Novgorod Oblast, Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Oblast and Riviera in Sochi (the latter two were left for Putin when he was Prime-Minister in 2008–2012, others were used by Dmitry Medvedev at that period). Furthermore, a massive Italianate-style mansion costing an alleged US$1 billion and dubbed "Putin's Palace" is under construction near the Black Sea village of Praskoveevka. The mansion, built on government land and sporting 3 helipads, a private road paid for from state funds and guarded by officials wearing uniforms of the official Kremlin guard service, is said to have been built for Putin's private use. In 2012 Sergei Kolesnikov, a former business associate of Putin's, told the BBC's Newsnight programme, that he had been ordered by deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin, to oversee the building of it. In 2014, the first detailed study of the alleged corruption of Putin and his inner circle – Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? by Karen Dawisha, was published in the West.

Languages

Apart from Russian, Putin speaks fluent German. After becoming President he was reported to be taking English lessons and could be seen conversing directly with Bush and native speakers of English in informal situations, but he continues to use interpreters for formal talks. Putin spoke English in public for the first time during the state dinner in Buckingham Palace in 2003 saying but a few phrases while delivering his condolences to Queen Elizabeth II on the death of her mother. In an interview in 2013, the Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov revealed that he and Putin sometimes conversed in Swedish.

Religion

Putin and wife Lyudmila in New York City at service for victims of September 11 attacks, 16 November 2001

Putin's father was "a model communist, genuinely believing in its ideals while trying to put them into practice in his own life". With this dedication he became secretary of the Party cell in his workshop and then after taking night classes joined the factory's Party bureau. Though his father was a "militant atheist", Putin's mother "was a devoted Orthodox believer". Though she kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly, despite the government's persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church at that time. She ensured that Putin was secretly christened as a baby and she regularly took him to services. His father knew of this but turned a blind eye.

According to Putin's own statements, his religious awakening followed the serious car crash of his wife in 1993, and was deepened by a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996. Right before an official visit to Israel his mother gave him his baptismal cross telling him to get it blessed. Putin stated: "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since." When asked whether he believes in God during his interview with Time, he responded saying: "...There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody's consumption because that would look like self-advertising or a political striptease." His rumoured confessor is ultra-conservative Bishop Tikhon. There rumors are persistent, but officially they are refused to be either confirmed or denied, on the grounds of the ultimate privacy of the issue.

Martial arts

Vladimir Putin
Putin on a tatami at the Kodokan Institute in Tokyo on 5 September 2000
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Teacher(s)	Anatoly Rahlin, Hatsuo Royama
Rank	Sambo: Master of Sports,   Champion of Leningrad Judo:    6th degree black belt,   Champion of Leningrad Kyokushin kaikan:    8th dan black belt
Years active	1966–present
Occupation	President of Russia

One of Putin's favorite sports is the martial art of judo. Putin began training in sambo (a martial art that originated in the Soviet Union) at the age of 14, before switching to judo, which he continues to practice today. Putin won competitions in his hometown of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), including the senior championships of Leningrad in both sambo and judo. He is the President of the Yawara Dojo, the same Saint Petersburg dojo he practiced at when young. Putin co-authored a book on his favorite sport, published in Russian as Judo with Vladimir Putin and in English under the title Judo: History, Theory, Practice (2004).

Though he is not the first world leader to practice judo, Putin is the first leader to move forward into the advanced levels. Currently, Putin holds a 6th dan (red/white belt) and is best known for his Harai Goshi (sweeping hip throw). Putin earned Master of Sports (Soviet and Russian sport title) in judo in 1975 and in sambo in 1973. At a state visit to Japan, Putin was invited to the Kodokan Institute, the judo headquarters, where he showed different judo techniques to the students and Japanese officials.

Putin also holds an 8th dan black belt in Kyokushin kaikan karate gotten in November 2014. He was presented the black belt in December 2009 by Japanese champion Kyokushin Karate-Do master Hatsuo Royama.

In 2013, Putin re-introduced the GTO physical fitness program to Russia with the support of Steven Seagal. As of 2011, Putin weighed 77 kg (170 pounds). His height is 170 cm (5'7") according to The Guardian.

Other sports

Putin often is seen on outdoor activities with Dmitry Medvedev, promoting sports and healthy way of life among Russians: they were seen alpine skiing in Krasnaya Polyana, playing badminton, cycling and fishing. Putin also started to learn ice skating and playing ice hockey after he promised to do so on a meeting with the Russia men's national junior ice hockey team who had won the 2011 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

Putin also enjoys watching football and supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, the main team of his native city.

Pets

Putin's Labrador Koni wearing GLONASS-enabled collar in October 2008

Main articles: Koni (dog) and Buffy (dog)

Putin owns a female black Labrador Retriever named Koni, given as a gift in 2000 by General of the Army and Russia's Minister of Emergency Situations Sergey Shoigu. In 2003 Koni gave birth to eight pups which were later given as presents to Russian citizens, politicians and foreign ambassadors. Koni gained additional fame in 2004 when the largest Russian publisher of children's books published a book entitled Connie's Stories. In 2008 Koni became the first recipient of a GLONASS-enabled pet collar to highlight the progress of the Russian global navigation satellite system.

In 2010 Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov gave Putin a Karakachan dog who was then named Buffy.

Recognition

• In September 2006, France's president Jacques Chirac awarded Vladimir Putin the Grand-Croix (Grand Cross) of the Légion d'honneur, the highest French decoration, to celebrate his contribution to the friendship between the two countries. This decoration is usually awarded to the heads of state considered very close to France.
• In 2007, Putin was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.
• On 12 February 2007 Saudi King Abdullah awarded Putin the King Abdul Aziz Award, Saudi Arabia's top civilian decoration.
• On 10 September 2007 UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan awarded Putin the Order of Zayed, the UAE's top civil decoration.
• In December 2007 Expert, a Russian business-oriented weekly magazine, named Putin as its Person of the Year.
• On 5 October 2008 the central street of Grozny, the capital of Russia's Republic of Chechnya, was renamed from the Victory Avenue to the Vladimir Putin Avenue, as ordered by the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.
• In February 2011 the parliament of Kyrgyzstan named a peak in Tian Shan mountains Vladimir Putin Peak.
• On 15 November 2011 the China International Peace Research Center awarded the Confucius Peace Prize to Putin, citing as reason Putin's opposition to NATO's Libya bombing in 2011 while also paying tribute to his decision to go to war in Chechnya in 1999. According to the committee, Putin's "Iron hand and toughness revealed in this war impressed the Russians a lot, and he was regarded to be capable of bringing safety and stability to Russia".
• In 2011, the University of Belgrade awarded Putin an honorary doctorate.

Further reading

Academic works

• Burrett, Tina. Television and Presidential Power in Putin's Russia (Routledge; 2010) 300 pages
• Kanet Roger E., ed. Russian Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 295 pages; essays by experts
• Sakwa, Richard (2008). Putin: Russia’s choice (2nd ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-93193-9Template:Inconsistent citations {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Sakwa, Richard (2008). Russian politics and society (4th ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire and Madison Avenue, New York City: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-93125-4Template:Inconsistent citations {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Journalist works

• Gessen, Masha (2012). The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 9781594488429.

Further reading

• Arutunyan, Anna (2015) [2012; Czech ed.]. The Putin Mystique: Inside Russia's Power Cult. Northampton, Mass.: Olive Branch Press. ISBN 9781566569903. OCLC 881654740.
• Asmus, Ronald (2010). A Little War that Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West. NYU. ISBN 978-0-230-61773-5.
• Gessen, Masha (2012). The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. Granta. ISBN 978-1-84708-149-0.
• Judah, Ben (2015). Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell in and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300205228.

External links

• Official personal website
• Official site of the President of Russia
• Template:DMOZ
• A Putin biography from the 2012–13 Stratfor email leak at WikiLeaks
• Appearances on C-SPAN