Putin: The Russian President

The unvarnished biography of Russia's head of state.

Hot History

Oct 31, 2023

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Upbringing

Putin was born in Saint Petersburg in 1952, amid the Cold War. Both of his two older brothers died in childhood. So Vladimir was essentially raised as an only child. At this stage, young Putin was an atheist, but would become an Orthodox Christian later in life. During his upbringing, Putin’s mother was a housewife, while his father was a Soviet veteran of World War II and a factory worker. His grandfather actually served Stalin as a cook a few times. The Putins lived in a communal apartment, shared by three families. Young Vladimir hunted rats in the stairwell. It was the beginning of his lifelong love of hunting wild animals in the outdoors. Putin’s childhood was quite unexceptional. As a 12-year-old, Vladimir fell in love with athletic competition. He enjoyed the martial arts, especially sambo and judo. Although his mother did not initially approve his participation in those sports, Vladimir proved himself to be an excellent competitor. Later in life, he would earn a black belt in judo. This made him the first world leader to be that advanced in those sports. Academically, he was undistinguished. He studied chemistry at a local school. In the sixth grade, he began to earn better marks. He was welcomed into the Young Pioneers, a youth group run by the Communist Party.

Saint Petersburg

From 1970 to 1975, Putin studied law at Saint Petersburg State University. As required by Soviet law, he was a member of the Communist Party. He later left the party, and denounced communism. “It became more and more obvious for me, more obvious truth that it was nothing more than a beautiful and harmful fairy tale,” Putin reflected in 1991. At university, Putin met Anatoly Sobchak, an assistant professor who taught business law and later wrote the Constitution of the Russian Federation. He was also the first democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg.

KGB agent

After graduating from university in 1975, Putin joined the KGB. It was the Soviet security service for much of the 20th century. First created in 1954, the KGB continued to operate until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Translated into English, the name means “State Security Committee.” The KGB had a notorious reputation for oppression and surveillance of Soviet citizens. Political dissidents were harassed. Putin began his KGB years in Leningrad. He married his wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva in 1983. They later divorced amicably in 2014. Over their marriage, the couple had two daughters, Maria and Yekatarina. Putin has largely kept his family life private, so the details are not fully known. He was transferred to Dresden, Germany, where he worked as an undercover KGB agent from 1985 to 1990. He gained fluency in the German language, which he prefers to English. By 1989, the Soviet influence over Germany was clearly waning. Sensing an imminent collapse, Putin and other KGB agents began burning government files.

Yeltsin administration

The Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Putin found work at his old alma mater in Saint Petersburg. There, he reconnected with Sobchak. Sobchak was elected the city’s mayor, and Putin joined his team as an adviser in 1991. He worked for Sobchak until 1996. Putin moved to Moscow, where he began working with the Yeltsin administration. Putin quickly rose through the ranks. He began as deputy chief administrator for the Kremlin. By 1999, he was named the Secretary of the Security Council. He became Yeltsin’s chief adviser on foreign relations and intelligence. In August of 1999, Yeltsin replaced his prime minister with Putin. Months later, Yeltsin himself stepped down. Putin became the acting president of Russia by December. He was formally elected three months later, in March of 2000. In a race with ten candidates, Putin managed to win Russia’s first democratic election.

President of Russia

As Russia’s new president, Putin approved the START II treaty and improved relations with China. When the Kursk submarine sank unexpectedly, it became an embarrassment for Putin’s administration. He was accused of mismanagement. However, it did not affect his electoral prospects. When terrorists assaulted the Twin Towers in September of 2001, Putin was sympathetic to the United States. He supported the War on Terror. However, his initial enthusiasm cooled after the US invaded Iraq in 2003. Putin won re-election in 2004, with over 70% of the vote. In his second term in office, Putin turned his attention toward Russia’s economy. Rejecting communism, he encouraged capitalist reforms, albeit with strict regulations. After years of economic struggle, Russia was finally stabilizing and growing. Disposable income nearly doubled. On the international stage, he made a historic trip to Israel, the first for a Russian leader. His negotiations with Benjamin Netanyahu focused on shared security concerns. The Russo-Israeli relationship was generally positive, although the two sides disagreed over Putin’s support for Assad in Syria. In 2004, terrorists took over Beslan school. Over a thousand people, including nearly 800 kids, were held hostage. For three days, they demanded Chechnya’s independence from Russia. Tanks, rockets, and artillery were used by the Russian military to secure the school. After hearing explosions from inside the school, special forces broke in. But they were unable to save the lives of the hostages. In the siege, over 300 people died, nearly two-thirds of whom were children. The European Court of Human Rights accused Russia of negligence and excessive use of force. But even after the Beslan massacre, 83% of Russians supported Putin. Following Beslan, Putin restructured the government. The president enjoyed more robust powers. Instead of electing governors in regions such as North Ossetia and Chechnya, they were appointed by the president. In 2007, Putin was named Time’s Person of the Year. The photographer of the cover won the World Press Photo Award. During the shoot, Putin and the photographer discussed their shared admiration of the Beatles. This relaxed the Russian president for the iconic photoshoot.

Autocratic turn

Putin had two successful terms as president. Under the Russian Constitution, he was barred from running for a third term. However, the next elected president was Dmitri Medvedev, a friend of Putin. He named Putin as Russia’s prime minister. During his third term as prime minister, from 2008 to 2012, Putin focused on dealing with the Great Recession. Russia was suffering from plummeting population decline. But the trend turned around by 2010, due partly to Putin’s economic reforms. One of those reforms was joining the World Trade Organization in 2012. Despite protests and accusations of fraud, Putin was elected again in 2012. He was re-elected in 2018. In 2021, after a referendum, he signed constitutional amendments that would allow him to run for reelection twice more. Putin’s critics accuse him of authoritarianism and democratic backsliding. Prominent journalists have been found poisoned or murdered in very suspicious circumstances.

Macho man

The Russian president has bolstered a public image of himself as a strong masculine figure. He projects physical dominance through martial arts, hunting, tracking, and posing with wild animals. He has caught huge fish, including a 46-pound pike. He once shot a crossbow at a whale. He once saved a camera crew from a Siberian tiger during a tour of a wildlife sanctuary. He has gotten close enough to polar bears to attach tracking devices to them. Putin has flown in experimental flying machines to accompany migrating birds. He dives in the Black Sea, and explores shipwrecks. He plays hockey. He rides snowmobiles and motorcycles. He has driven a Formula One race car. During a visit to a Russian youth camp, he challenged attendees to arm wrestle, and tried to bend a frying pan with his bare hands.

Geopolitics

Today, Putin is at the forefront of geopolitics. He was accused of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump. As president, Trump generally pursued a rapprochement with Putin’s Russia. For several years now, Russia has propped up Assad’s regime in Syria. In early July of 2017, Putin and President Trump announced a ceasefire in southwestern Syria. Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has recast the international order, and its outcome is yet to be determined.