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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Владимир Владимирович Путин


2nd President of the Russian Federation
Incumbent
Assumed office May 7, 2000 (acting president from December 31, 1999 - May 7, 2000)
Vice President	Dick Cheny
Preceded by	Boris Yeltsin
Prime Minister of Russian Federation
In office August 8, 1999 – May 7, 2000
Preceded by	Sergei Stepashin
Succeeded by	Mikhail Kasyanov

Personal details
Born	(1952-10-07) October 7, 1952 (age 72) Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russian Federation)
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ludmila Putin (maiden name Shkrebneva)
Signature

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Template:Audio-ru) (born October 7, 1952) is the current President of the Russian Federation. He became acting President on December 31, 1999, succeeding Boris Yeltsin, and was sworn in as President following the elections on May 7, 2000. In 2004, he was re-elected for a second term, which expires in 2008.

Early years and KGB career

Putin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) on October 7, 1952. His biography, От Первого Лица (Romanization: Ot Pervogo Litsa, translation: From the first person), translated into English in 2000 and paid for by his election campaign, speaks of humble beginnings, including early years in a communal apartment. According to his biography, in his youth he was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov.

His mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina, was a factory worker and his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, was conscripted into the Soviet Navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. His father subsequently served with the NKVD in a sabotage group during the Second World War. Two elder brothers were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months of birth; the second succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad. His paternal grandfather, Spiridon Putin, had been Vladimir Lenin's and Joseph Stalin's personal cook.

Putin graduated from the International Branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975 and was recruited into the KGB. At the University he also became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and has never formally resigned from it.

He worked in the Leningrad and Leningrad region Directorate of the KGB, where he got acquainted with Sergei Ivanov.

In 1976 he completed KGB retraining courses. In 1978 he entered other foreign intelligence in Moscow. After completing the training he served in the First Department of the Leningrad Directorate (foreign intelligence) until 1983. In 1983-1984 he studied at the KGB High School in Moscow. In 1984 Putin was promoted to Major.

From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany, in what he regards as a minor position. Following the collapse of the East German regime, 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 grew reacquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad. Sobchak served as an Assistant Professor during Putin's university years and was one of Putin's lecturers. Putin formally resigned from the state security services on August 20, 1991, during the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Early political and business career

In May 1990 Putin was appointed Mayor Sobchak's advisor on international affairs. On June 28, 1991, he was appointed head of the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments. The Committee was also used to register business ventures in St. Petersburg. During the time Putin led this Committee, Alexei Miller, the current CEO of Gazprom, also served on it from (December 15, 1991–1996), as well as a number of other prominent politicians and businesspeople, and was a deputy head of the Committee from 1992-1996. . Less than one year after taking control of the committee, Putin was investigated by a commission of the city legislative council. Commission deputies Marina Salye and Yury Gladkov concluded that Putin understated prices and issued licenses permitting the export of non-ferrous metals valued at a total of $93 million in exchange for food aid from abroad that never came to the city. The commission recommended Putin be fired, but there were no immediate consequences. Putin remained head of the Committee for External Relations until 1996. While heading the Committee for External Relations, from 1992 to March 2000 Putin was also on the advisory board of the German real estate holding St. Petersburg Immobilien und Beteiligungs AG (SPAG) which has been investigated by German prosecutors for money laundering.

From 1994 to 1997, Putin was appointed to additional positions in the St. Petersburg political arena. In March 1994 he became first deputy head of the administration of the city of Saint Petersburg. In 1995 (through June 1997) Putin led the St. Petersburg branch of the pro-government Our Home Is Russia political party. During this same period from 1995 through June 1997 he was also the head of the Advisory Board of the JSC Newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti.

In 1996 Anatoly Sobchak lost the St. Petersburg mayoral election to Vladimir Yakovlev. Putin was called to Moscow and in June 1996 assumed position of a Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department headed by Pavel Borodin. He occupied this position until March 1997. On March 26, 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).

On June 27, 1997, at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute Putin defended his Candidate of Science dissertation in economics titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations". According to Clifford G Gaddy, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institute, 16 of the 20 pages that open a key section of Putin’s work were copied either word for word or with minute alterations from a management study, Strategic Planning and Policy, written by US professors William King and David Cleland and translated into Russian by a KGB-related institute in the early 1990s.

On May 25 1998 Vladimir Putin was appointed First Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff for regions, (replacing Viktoriya Mitina), and on July 15 of the same year - the 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.

On July 25 1998 Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin Head of the 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 October 1 1998 and its Head on March 29 1999. In April 1999, FSB Chief Vladimir Putin and Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin held a televised press conference in which they discussed a video that had aired nationwide March 17 on the state-controlled Russia TV channel which showed a naked man very similar to the Prosecutor General of Russia, Yury Skuratov, in bed with two young women. Putin claimed that expert FSB analysis proved the man on the tape to be Skuratov and that the orgy had been paid for by persons investigated for criminal offences. Skuratov had been adversarial toward President Yeltsin and had been aggressively investigating government corruption.

On June 15, 2000, The Times reported that Spanish police discovered that Putin had secretly visited a villa in Spain belonging to the oligarch Boris Berezovsky on up to five different occasions in 1999.

Family and personal life

File:Putya2.jpg

young Putin

On July 28 1983 Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva, at that time an undergraduate student of the Spanish branch of the Philology Department of the Leningrad State University and a former airline stewardess, who had been born in Kaliningrad on January 6 1958. They have two daughters, Maria Putina (born 1985) and Yekaterina (Katya) Putina (born 1986 in Dresden). The daughters attended the German School in Moscow (Deutsche Schule Moskau) until his appointment as prime minister.

Since 1992, Putin had owned a dacha of about 7 thousand square meters in Solovyovka, Priozersky district of the Leningrad region, which is located on the eastern shore of the Komsomol'skoye lake on the Karelian Isthmus near St. Petersburg. His neighbours there are Vladimir Yakunin, Andrei Fursenko, Sergey Fursenko, Yuriy Kovalchuk, Viktor Myachin, Vladimir Smirnov and Nikolay Shamalov. On November 10, 1996, together they instituted the co-operative society Ozero (the Lake) which united their properties. This was confirmed by Putin's income and property declaration as a nominee for the presidency in 2000. However, this real estate was not listed in his income and property declaration for 1998 - 2002 submitted before the 2004 elections. (Full text of the declaration in Russian: .doc)

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. Putin himself is a practicing member of the Russian Orthodox Church. 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 “I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since.”

Putin has been hailed by Patriarch Alexius II of the Russian Orthodox Church as instrumental in healing the 80-year schism between it and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia in May 2007.

Putin speaks German with near-native fluency. His family used to speak German at home as well. He also speaks English but uses interpreters when conversing with native speakers of English. Putin spoke English in public for the first time whilst addressing delegates at the 119th International Olympic Committee Session in Guatemala City on behalf of the successful bid of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Prime Minister

President

First term

His rise to Russia's highest office ended up being even more rapid: on December 31, 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and, according to the constitution, Putin became (acting) President of the Russian Federation. While his opponents were preparing for an election later that year in June, Yeltsin's resignation resulted in the elections being held within three months, in March. This put all of his opponents at a disadvantage, giving him the element of surprise and an eventual victory. Presidential elections were held on March 26, 2000; Putin won in the first round.

Vladimir Putin was inaugurated president on May 7 2000. Having announced his intention to consolidate power in the country into a strict vertical, in May 2000 he issued a decree dividing 89 federal subjects of Russia between 7 federal districts overseen by representatives of him in order to facilitate federal administration. In July 2000, according to a law proposed by him and approved by the Russian parliament, Putin also gained the right to dismiss heads of the federal subjects.

In December 2000 Putin sanctioned the change of the National Anthem of Russia to restore the music of the pre-1991 Soviet anthem, but with new words.

On February 12 2001, Putin signed a federal law on guarantees for former presidents and their families (See Vladimir Putin legislation and program). In 1999 Yeltsin and his family were under scrutiny for charges related to money-laundering by the Russian and Swiss authorities.

Second term

Foreign policy

Main article: Foreign relations of Russia

In international affairs, Putin has been trying, with some success, to re-establish for Russia the strong and independent role once played by the former Soviet Union. For example, on February 2007 at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, he criticised the United States' monopolistic dominance in global relations, and pointed out that the United States displayed an "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."

Instead he called for a "fair and democratic world order that would ensure security and prosperity not only for a select few, but for all". He proposed certain initiatives such as establishing international centres for the enrichment of uranium and prevention of deploying weapons in outer space. In his January 2007 interview Putin said Russia is in favour of a democratic multipolar world and of strengthening the system of international law.

At the same time, Putin's Russia has been seeking stronger and more constructive ties with Europe and the United States. Thus, Russia became a fully fledged member of the G8 and chaired the group in the calendar year of 2006 (chairmanship which has now passed on to Germany). At the same time, Putin's attention was equally focused on Asia, in particular China and India.

While President Putin is criticized as an autocrat by some Western politicians , his relationships with US President George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, former French President Jacques Chirac, and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are reported to be friendly. Putin's relationship with Germany's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is expected to be "cooler" and "more business-like" than his partnership with Gerhard Schröder .

Putin surprised many Russian nationalists and even his own defense minister when, in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States, he agreed to the establishment of coalition military bases in Central Asia before and during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Russian nationalists objected to the establishment of any US military presence on the territory of the former Soviet Union, and had expected Putin to keep the US out of the Central Asian republics, or at the very least extract a commitment from Washington to withdraw from these bases as soon as the immediate military necessity had passed.

During the Iraq crisis of 2003, Putin opposed Washington's move to invade Iraq without the benefit of a United Nations Security Council resolution explicitly authorizing the use of military force. After the official end of the war was announced, American president George W. Bush asked the United Nations to lift sanctions on Iraq. Putin supported lifting of the sanctions in due course, arguing that the UN commission first be given a chance to complete its work on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

In 2005, Putin and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder negotiated the construction of a major gas pipeline over the Baltic exclusively between Russia and Germany. Schröder also attended Putin's 53rd birthday in Saint Petersburg the same year. The end of 2006 brought strained relations between Russia and Britain in the wake of the death of a former FSB officer in London by poisoning. Press reports suggest that Putin's government is providing only limited cooperation with the investigation.

During his time in office, Putin has attempted to strengthen relations with other members of the CIS. The "near abroad" zone of traditional Russian influence has again become a foreign policy priority under Putin, as the EU and NATO have grown to encompass much of Central Europe and, more recently, the Baltic states.

During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, Putin twice visited Ukraine before the election to show his support for Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and he congratulated him on his alleged victory before the official election results had been announced. Putin's direct support for pro-Russian Yanukovych was widely criticized as unwarranted interference in the affairs of post-Soviet Ukraine. More recently, a crisis has emerged in Russia's relations with Georgia and Moldova, both former Soviet republics accusing Moscow of supporting separatist entities in their territories. Russia's relations with the Baltic states also remain tense. The relationship with Estonia has deteriorated further in the course of the Bronze Soldier controversies.

In his annual address to the Federal Assembly on April 26, 2007, Putin announced plans to declare a moratorium on the observance of the CFE Treaty by Russia until all NATO members ratify it and start observing its provisions, as Russia has been doing so far on a unilateral basis. Putin argues that as new NATO members have not even signed the treaty so far, an imbalance in the presence of NATO and Russian armed forces in Europe creates a real threat and an unpredictable situation for Russia.

The months following Putin's Munich speech were marked by tension and a surge in rhetorics on both sides of the Atlantic. So, Vladimir Putin said at the anniversary of the Victory Day, "these 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." This was interpreted by some Russian and Western commentators as comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany. On the eve of the 33rd Summit of the G8 in Heiligendamm, American historian Anne Applebaum wrote that "Whether by waging cyberwarfare on Estonia, threatening the gas supplies of Lithuania, or boycotting Georgian wine and Polish meat, he has, over the past few years, made it clear that he intends to reassert Russian influence in the former communist states of Europe, whether those states want Russian influence or not. At the same time, he has also made it clear that he no longer sees Western nations as mere benign trading partners, but rather as Cold War-style threats." British historian Max Hastings prior to the 2007 G8 Summit also described Putin as "Stalin's spiritual heir" in his article "Will we have to fight Russia in this Century?", and said that although "a return to the direct military confrontation of the Cold War is unlikely", "the notion of Western friendship with Russia is a dead letter" However, both Russian and American officials always denied the idea of a new Cold War. So, the US defence secretary Robert Gates said yet on the Munich Conference: "We all face many common problems and challenges that must be addressed in partnership with other countries, including Russia. ... One Cold War was quite enough." Vladimir Putin said prior to 33rd G8 Summit, on June 4: "we do not want confrontation; we want to engage in dialogue. However, we want a dialogue that acknowledges the equality of both parties’ interests."

Putin, bitterly opposed to a U.S. missile shield in Europe, presented President George W. Bush with a surprise counterproposal on June 7 2007 of sharing the use of the Soviet-era radar system in Azerbaijan rather than building new system in the Czech Republic. Putin expressed readiness to modernize the Gabala radar station, which has been in operation since 1986. Putin proposed it would not be necessary to place interceptor missiles in Poland then, but interceptors could be placed in NATO member Turkey or Iraq. Putin suggested also equal involvement of interested European countries in the project.

Portraits of President Putin on display in a Moscow store.

Russians argue that this proposal presents a probe to the real intent of the US with regard to their AMD shield plans: if American real concern is Iran, then Putin's offer is unbeatable, they say, since detecting Iran's missile launches from Azerbaijan would be more reasonable than doing so from Czech Republic. Russian senior lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said, "if the Americans reject Russia's offer under some pretext, we will know for sure that their true goal is not only to stave off a potential threat from Iran or North Korea, but also to neutralize Russia's nuclear potential, which we could have assumed earlier."

On July 20, 2007 UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown expelled "four Russian envoys over Putin's refusal to extradite ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, wanted in the UK for the murder of fellow former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London." The Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian nationals to third countries. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that "this situation is not unique, and other countries have amended their constitutions, for example to give effect to the European Arrest Warrant". This was widely publicized by Russian media as a British proposal to change the Russian constitution. According to VCIOM, 62% of Russians are against changing the Constitution in this respect. The British Ambassador in Moscow Tony Brenton said that the UK is not asking Russia to break its Constitution, but rather interpret it in such a way that would make Lugovoi's extradition possible. Putin in response advised British officials to "fix their heads" rather than propose changing the Russian constitution and said that British proposals is "a relic of a colonial-era mindset". When Litvinenko was dying from radiation poisoning, he allegedly accused Putin of directing the assassination in a statement which was released shortly after his death by his friend Alex Goldfarb. Critics have doubted that Litvinenko is the true author of the released statement. When asked about the Litvinenko accusations, Putin said that a statement released after death of its author "naturally deserves no comment". The expulsions is seen as "the biggest rift since the countries expelled each other's diplomats in 1996 after a spying dispute." In response to the situation Putin stated "I think we will overcome this mini-crisis. Russian-British relations will develop normally. On both the Russian side and the British side, we are interested in the development of those relations." Despite this British Ambassador Tony Brenton was told by the Russian Foreign Ministry that UK diplomats would be given 10 days before they were expelled in response. The Russian government also suspended issuing visas to UK officials and froze cooperation on counterterrorism in response to Britain suspending contacts with their Federal Security Service. Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs warned that British investors in Russia will "face greater scrutiny from tax and regulatory authorities. They could also lose out in government tenders". Some see the crisis as originating with Britain's decision to grant Litvinenko's patron, Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky political asylum in 2003. Earlier in 2007 Berezovsky called for the overthrow of Putin.

Following the Peace Mission 2007 military exercises jointly conducted by the SCO member states, Putin announced on August 17, 2007 the resumption on a permanent basis of long-distance patrol flights of Russia's strategic bombers that were suspended in 1992. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was quoted as saying in response that "if Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision." The announcement made during the SCO summit in the light of joint Russian-Chinese military exercises, first-ever in history to be held on the Russian territory, makes some 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". Russian Chief of the General Staff Yury Baluyevsky was quoted as saying that "there should be no talk of creating a military or political alliance or union of any kind, because this would contradict the founding principles of SCO".

Domestic support and criticism

While having widespread public support in Russia, Putin also has many critics, most vocal of them coming from the West. While many reforms made in modern Russia under Putin’s rule have been generally criticized by Western media and some American politicians as antidemocratic, a joint poll by World Public Opinion in the U. S. and Levada Center Russia around June-July 2006 stated that "neither the Russian nor the American publics are convinced Russia is headed in an anti-democratic direction" and "Russians generally support Putin’s concentration of political power and strongly support the re-nationalization of Russia’s oil and gas industry" Russians generally support reforms initiated by Putin's team.

According to public opinion surveys conducted by Levada Center, Putin's approval rating was 81% in June 2007, and the highest of any leader in the world. His popularity rose from 31% in August 1999 to 80% in November 1999 and since then it has never fallen below 65%.

Martial arts

One of Putin's favorite sports is the martial art of judo. Putin began sambo (a Soviet martial art developed for the Red Army and the NKVD) 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 championship of Leningrad. He is the President of the Yawara Dojo, the same St. 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.

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 is a black belt (6th dan) and is best known for his Harai Goshi, a sweeping hip throw. Vladimir Putin is Master of Sports (Soviet and Russian sport title) in Judo and Sambo. After a state visit to Japan, Putin was invited to the Kodokan Institute and showed the students and Japanese officials different judo techniques.

Putin is also a fan of mixed martial arts, and is considered a friend of Fedor Emelianenko. He attended the BODOG Fight event in St. Petersburg.

Honours

In September 2006, France's president Jacques Chirac awarded Vladimir Putin the Grand Cross of the Legion 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 as very close to France.
On February 12, 2007 Saudi King Abdullah awarded Putin the King Abdul Aziz Award, Saudi Arabia's top civilian decoration.

Anecdotes

In a transcript published on July 12, 2006, Putin is reported to have responded to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's political criticism by saying, "I think the statements of your Vice-President of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot." U.S. President George W. Bush later remarked that the comment was "pretty clever, actually, quite humorous."
In response to Bush's accusations during the press conference at the 32nd G8 summit held in July of 2006, concerning the decline of democracy in modern Russia, when Bush said that Iraq is a good example to follow, Putin stated, "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly."
At a press conference on February 1, 2007 Putin was asked for his opinion on homosexuality in the midst of a row over the decision by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to ban a gay rights parade in Moscow. Putin said: "My approach toward gay parades and sexual minorities is very simple. It is directly linked to my responsibilities. One of the key problems of our country is the demographic problem." After the audience burst out in laughter, Putin added, "I respect the freedom of people in all respects."

References and notes

Fig.: Vladimir Putin and Mrs. Ljudmilla (Людмила) during the east amusing service in the Erlöserkathedrale (ХрамХристаСпасителя), Moscow, April 2001 (source of picture: http://vladimirputin.4u.ru/ -- Access to 09.12.2005.) Retrieved on 2007-06-27
Some biographers speculate that he was born in 1950 and lived at Metekhi, Georgian SSR, USSR, from 1953 to 1960, see Who is Mr. Putin (in Russian) by Vladimir Pribylovsky and Yury Felshtinsky, Subbota, No 10, March 4, 2004; Georgian relatives of the President (in Russian) by I. Bobrova, Moskovskiy Komsomolets, June 13 2006.
"Book Intro" (in Russian). {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin and the End of Revolution,p. 40. New York, Scribner, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6431-2
^ "ПУТИН Владимир Владимирович" (in Russian). Антикомпромат (anticompromat.ru). {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Владимир Путин. От Первого Лица. Chapter 6
"ИВАНОВ Сергей Борисович" (in Russian). Антикомпромат (anticompromat.ru). {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Seven Moments of the Successor's Life (in Russian), Moskovskiy Komsomolets, 18.08.1999.
^ V. Pribylovsky. "Происхождение путинской олигархии (The Origin of Putin's Oligarchy)" (in Russian). Антикомпромат (anticompromat.ru). {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
"МИЛЛЕР Алексей Борисович" (in Russian). Антикомпромат (anticompromat.ru). {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Kovalev, Vladimir (2004-07-23). "Uproar At Honor For Putin". The St. Petersburg Time. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Hoffman, David (2000-01-30). "Putin's Career Rooted in Russia's KGB". The Washington Post. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
J. Michael Waller (2000-03-17). "Russia Reform Monitor No. 755: U.S. Seen Helping Putin's Presidential Campaign; Documents, Ex-Investigators, Link Putin to St. Petersburg Corruption". American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, D.C. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
B. Berezovsky (2004-02-24). "New Repartition //What is to be done?". Kommersant. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Kovalev, Vladimir (2005-07-29). "Putin Should Settle Doubts About His Past Conduct". The St. Petersburg Time. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Roth, Jürgen. Die Gangster aus dem Osten. Hamburg: Europa Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3203815265
Duparc, Agathe et Vladimir Ivanidze. Le nom de M. Poutine apparaît en marge des affaires de blanchiment au Liechtenstein. Le Monde, 26.05.2000.
A Stain on Mr. Clean by Mark Hosenball and Christian Karyl, Newsweek, 3.09.2001
Le Monde Says Putin Linked To Crime Moscow Times, 30.05.2000.
Putin’s Name Surfaces in German Probe by Catherine Belton
The Man Who Wasn't There by Nick Paton Walsh. The Observer, 29.02.2004.
^ "Владимир Путин: от ассистента Собчака до и.о. премьера" (in Russian). GAZETA.RU. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
"ПУТИН — КАНДИДАТ НАУК" (in Russian). zavtra.ru. 2000-05-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Tony Allen-Mills Putin accused of plagiarising his PhD thesis The Sunday Times March 26 2006
The Half-Decay Products (in Russian) by Oleg Odnokolenko. Itogi, #47(545), 2.01.2007.
The Security Organs of the Russian Federation. A Brief History 1991-2004 by Jonathan Littell.
The Operation "Successor" by Vladimir Pribylovsky and Yuriy Felshtinsky (in Russian).
Tremlett, Giles (June 15 2000). "Leader's secret holidays to Spain". The Times. Retrieved 2007-04-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Richard Sakwa (2004). Putin: Russia's Choice. London: Routledge.
^ Timothy J. Colton, Michael MacFaul (2003). Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: the Russian elections of 1999 and 2000. Washington DC: The Brookings Institiution.
Russian President Vladimir Putin Discusses Domestic and Foreign Affairs Larry King Live, September 8 2000.
David Holley (May 17, 2007). "Russian Orthodox Church ends 80-year split". Los Angeles Times.
Wagner, Hans (June 30, 2006). "Das Konfliktpotential mit den USA wächst (German)". Retrieved 2007-03-29.
"Text of Yeltsin's speech in English". BBC NEWS. 1999-08-09. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
Yeltsin redraws political map BBC, August 10, 1999
Yeltsin's man wins approval BBC, August 16, 1999.
Analysis of Chechen Crisis from ChechnyaFree.Ru
Can Grozny be groovy? by The Independent, March 13, 2007.
Human Rights Watch Reports, on human rights abuses in Chechnya. Retrieved November 22, 2006
Views of today Chechnya, published in November 29, 2006.
Views of Grozny, 2007, Views of Chechen schools, 2007.
Political groups and parties: Unity Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt
Duma approves old Soviet anthem CNN, December 8, 2000.
Yeltsin linked to bribe scandal BBC, September 8, 1999.
Source: 82% of Russians Approve TV Censorship, Russian Development Portal, 24 June 2005
Lynch, Dov (2005). "The enemy is at the gate": Russia after Beslan. International Affairs 81 (1), 141–161.
Putin tightens grip on security, BBC News, September 13 2004.
Sovereignty is a Political Synonym of Competitiveness, Vladislav Surkov, public appear, 7 February 2006
Our Russian Model of Democracy is Titled «Sovereign Democracy», Vladislav Surkov, briefing, 28 June 2006
^ Interview with Newspaper Journalists from G8 Member Countries, June 4, 2007, full official transcript.
Putin: I Am the World's Only 'Pure Democrat' by Jim Heintz (Associated Press). The Guardian, June 4 2007.
Constitution of Russia, Section One, Chapter Four.
, The Nation, by Mark Ames, June 12, 2007.
VCIOM: Dissenters' Marches Do Not Interest Russians, Regnum.ru, July 3, 2007
There Were Fewer Dissenters' March Participants Than Journalists, RIA News Agency, May 18, 2007
Joint press conference after Russia-EU summit, Samara, May 18, 2007
100 People Arrested During Dissenters' March in St. Petersburg, Izvestia, March 5, 2007
^ Guests from Moscow, RG.ru, March 5, 2007
^ Michael Hammerschlag (July 5, 2007). "Putin's children". International Herald Tribune.
Interview with Vasily Yakemenko, Gzt. Ru, January 26, 2006.
Discussion of speech freedom at Russian Radio Freedom, April 19, 2005
^ 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy. Putin's speech in English, February 10, 2007.
Interview for Indian Television Channel Doordarshan and Press Trust of India News Agency, January 18, 2007.
In this connection it is worth of mention that Putin's father, an NKVD officer, was almost killed in Estonia, while on a sabotage mission during the World War 2. The fact may have had some influence on Vladimir Putin's attitudes, as suggested by Lynn Berry in the article “Behind Putin's Estonia Complex” (in Moscow Times, May 25, 2007). Text available at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839758/posts
Annual Address to the Federal Assembly, April 26, 2007, Kremlin, Moscow
Speech at the Military Parade Celebrating the 62nd Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Red Square, Moscow, May 9, 2007
Putin is playing a dangerous game By Anne Applebaum, 05/06/2007
A blundering Bush, Tsar Putin, and the question: will we, in this century, have to fight Russia? by Max Hastings
Press Conference following the end of the G8 Summit, June 8, 2007
Russia awaits U.S. response on new radar proposal - senior MP
Putin's proposal for Russia-US joint use of Gabala Radar Station is not equivalent to Washington's Anti-Missile Project
Rice Did Not Follow Putin's Argument on AMD, Izvestia, 13.6.2007 (in Russian)
From Words Towards Deeds, Izvestia, 13.6.2007 (in Russian)
^ Gonzalo Vina and Sebastian Alison (July 20, 2007). "Brown Defends Russian Expulsions, Decries Killings". Bloomberg News.
David Miliband's oral statement to the Commons on the Litvinenko case, July 16, 2007
Lugovoi Has Disclosed Next Martyr, August 29, 2007
London Proposes to Moscow Changing Constitution, July 17, 2007
^ John Lennon on Russian Constitution, August 17, 2007
VCIOM: Russians Oppose Lugovoi Extradition to Brits, Rbc.ru, August 21, 2007
British Ambassador Suggests Russia Interprets Its Constitution In New Ways, Gorod.lv, July 23, 2007
Excerpts from Transcript of Meeting with Members of Russian Youth Organisations, July 24, 2007, In Russian
Excerpts from Transcript of Meeting with Members of Russian Youth Organisations, July 24, 2007, In English
In full: Litvinenko statement, BBC News, November 24, 2006
Soviet Moonwalker is Guilty for Litvinenko Death? Strange Litvinenko Last Will, Izvestia, November 27, 2006
Is Putin being set up?, Townhall.com, November 27, 2006
Joint Press Conference after Russia-EU Summit, Helsinki, Finland, November 24, 2006
^ Press Statement following the Peace Mission 2007 Counterterrorism Exercises and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, August 17, 2007, Chelyabinsk Region
^ Russia restores Soviet-era strategic bomber patrols, August 17, 2007, RIA Novosti, Russia
^ SCO Scares NATO, August 8, 2007, KM.ru
Russia Over Three Oceans, August 20, 2007, "Chas", Latvia
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/international/europe/15russia.html?ex=1252900800&en=e5ff9ecdaef537d9&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
Russians Support Putin’s Re-Nationalization of Oil, Control of Media, But See Democratic Future - World Public Opinion.org
www.russiavotes.org
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6265068.stm
www.russiavotes.org
Vladimir Putin: the NPR interview U.S. radio station National Public Radio New York (November 15, 2001)
Putin, Vladimir V. (2004). Judo: History, Theory, Practice. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-55643-445-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
^ Tom Ross. "Presidential Judo". FightingArts.com.
^ "Interview with NBC Television Channel (USA)". July 12, 2006.
"Putin has fun with Cheney hunting accident".
"Press Conference Following Talks with U.S. President George W. Bush". July 15, 2006.
Transcript of Press Conference with the Russian and Foreign Media, February 1, 2007
"Moscow Pride Banned Again".

External links

The official site of the President of the Russian Federation
Speeches by the President at the official website.
Artiom Malgin, Jaroslav Skvortsov, Alexandr Tchechevishnikov (Moscow State Institute of International Relations, MGIMO); published by the Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies, Warsaw: Aims, Priorities and Tasks: Attempt at a Systematic Analysis of the Presidential Speeches In Russia (2000 – 2005), XV Economic Forum Krynica 7-10 September, 2005
The Accidental Autocrat, in The Atlantic Monthly, March 2005 (may require subscription)
Russia as friend, not foe, in Asia Times by Nicolai N. Petro, February 2007
Russia's Foreign Policy in a resurgent mode: An Analysis
Transcript of the Interactive Webcast with the President, July 6, 2006 (BBC version).
RussianSpy: Vladimir Putin
BBC – Vladimir Putin: Spy turned politician
Putin and his judo activities
Transcript of an interview with Larry King, September 2000
Guardian — How I learned to love Vlad, by Nick P. Walsh
Vladimir.Vladimirovich.ru political satire site
Template:Ru icon Forum noputin.com
Russia - To Be Feared... For Now
Template:Ru icon Vladimir Putin Fan Club
Putin's Russia
That Murder in London
Template:Ru icon "Who could be a President?" Composition by Alexey Vishnya.
Anatol Lieven (May 11, 2006). "Putin versus Cheney". International Herald Tribune.
Putin's Duality by Ion Mihai Pacepa, FrontPageMagazine, August 5, 2005
Template:Ru icon Dossier on Putin by V. Pribylovsky
Template:Ru icon The Operation "Successor" by Vladimir Pribylovsky and Yuriy Felshtinsky
Doug Sanders, "Putin threatens to target Europe with missiles", The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2007

Template:Incumbent succession box

Preceded byN/A	Head of the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg City Administration June 28 1991-1996	Succeeded byGennadiy Tkachyov
Preceded byAlexei Kudrin	Chief of the Control Directorate of the Russian presidential administration March 26 1997-May1998	Succeeded byNikolay Patrushev
Preceded byNikolay Kovalyov	Director of FSB July 25 1998 - August 9 1999	Succeeded byNikolay Patrushev
Preceded byNikolai Bordyuzha	Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation March 29 1999-November 15 1999	Succeeded bySergei Ivanov
Preceded bySergei Stepashin	Prime Minister of Russia August 9, 1999–May 7, 2000	Succeeded byMikhail Kasyanov

Template:RussianPresidents Template:Historical Russian Leadership Template:RussianPMs

v t e Leaders of the Group of Seven
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Chechen–Russian conflict

First Chechen War (1994–1996)
War in Dagestan (1999)
Second Chechen War (1999–2009)
Insurgency in Ingushetia (2007–2015)
Insurgency in the North Caucasus (2009–2017)

First Chechen War

Second Chechen War

Major attacks