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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин) (b. October 7,
1952) has been the President of Russia since the year 2000.
Putin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Graduated
from the Law Department of Leningrad
State University in 1975. During his KGB officer
career from 1975 to 1991 he lived several years in
the GDR (Eastern Germany). He was head of the
FSB (the KGB's successor) from
July 1998 to August 1999. He was Prime Minister in Boris Yeltsin's
government from August 1999. As Prime Minister he
won great acclaim from the Russian people for managing the reinvasion of the breakaway republic of Chechnya. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned, and made Putin the second (acting) President of the
Russian Federation. Proper Presidential elections were held on March 26, 2000, which Putin won.
In many ways, Putin is a rather atypical Russian leader: He is comparatively young, never touches alcohol, and is a sports
enthusiast — he has practiced Judo since childhood. He is a practicing member of the
Russian Orthodox Church whose conversion to Christianity most observers agree was sincere. He speaks German and English with near-native fluency. Putin is married and he has two children.
Unlike his predecessor, President Putin has been less enthusiastic about erasing Russia's Soviet past from memory. He has stated his belief that whatever the crimes of the Communist regime, it was nevertheless
an important part of Russian history, and an important influence
on the creation of modern Russian society. As a result, some Soviet era symbols have been allowed to return to Russia, such as
the trademark red military flag, the "Soviet Star" crest, and the Soviet national anthem (although with revised lyrics).
Putin was against the war in Iraq during the Iraq crisis of
2003. After the war ended, American president George W. Bush asked
the United Nations for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. Putin supported lifting of the
sanctions in due course, arguing that first UN commission be given a chance to complete its work on the search of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.
The pro-Putin United Russia party won a landslide victory in the
2003 parliamentary elections. Foreign observers called the election itself fair, but noted
that the largely government-run Media, especially Russian national TV, had massively and unfairly campaigned for the governing
party only.
It is said that there are two factions operating within Putin's Kremlin. One, the siloviki, is associated with the more nationalist elements of the military and security services. The other,
tagged the Family, are people linked with former President Boris Yeltsin and the oligarchs who prospered during his term in
office. These two factions often fiercely disagree, as they did in relation to the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil magnate. Putin has been careful not to be seen to be with
one faction or the other, with his Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin identified as linked to the Family. It is believed that Voloshin threatened to
resign in protest at the arrest of Khodorkovsky. Putin accepted the resignation and replaced him with Dmitry Medvedev, the chairman of
Gazprom the state-owned gas company.
Another linked to the Family is former Prime Minister Mikhail
Kasyanov. Defying Putin's direct instruction to avoid involvement in the matter, Kasyanov expressed great concern about the
Khodorkovsky prosecution and declared the freezing of a controlling stake in Yukos
unprecedented.
On 24 February 2004, less than a
month prior to the elections, Putin dismissed prime minister Mikhail
Kasyanov and the entire Russian cabinet and appointed Viktor
Khristenko acting prime minister. On March 1, he nominated Mikhail Fradkov for the position.
On March 14, 2004, the Presidential
elections were held and Putin won the re-election to the Presidency for his second and final term with 71% of the votes. Again
there had been massive campaigning by Russian national TV, but again the election itself was fair. He is not permitted under the
Constitution of Russian
Federation to run for a third term (following the 2003 parliamentary elections he
gained a sufficient majority to change the Constitution, but so far he hasn't announced any intention to do so.)
Supporters of Vladimir Putin have often accused the makers of the Harry
Potter films to have deliberately modelled Dobby after the Russian president.
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