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Vladimir Putin
Владимир Путин
Владимир Путин (18-06-2023) (cropped).jpg
Putin in 2023
President of Russia
Assumed office
7 May 2012
Prime Minister
Preceded by Dmitry Medvedev
In office
7 May 2000 – 7 May 2008
Acting: 31 December 1999 – 7 May 2000
Prime Minister
Preceded by Boris Yeltsin
Succeeded by Dmitry Medvedev
Prime Minister of Russia
In office
8 May 2008 – 7 May 2012
President Dmitry Medvedev
First Deputy
  • Sergei Ivanov
  • Viktor Zubkov
  • Igor Shuvalov
Preceded by Viktor Zubkov
Succeeded by Viktor Zubkov (acting)
In office
9 August 1999 – 7 May 2000
President Boris Yeltsin
First Deputy
  • Nikolai Aksyonenko
  • Viktor Khristenko
  • Mikhail Kasyanov
Preceded by Sergei Stepashin
Succeeded by Mikhail Kasyanov
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
First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration
In office
25 May 1998 – 24 July 1998
President Boris Yeltsin
Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration – Head of the Main Supervisory Department
In office
26 March 1997 – 24 May 1998
President Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by Alexei Kudrin
Succeeded by Nikolai Patrushev
Personal details
Born
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

(1952-10-07) 7 October 1952 (age 71)
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political party Independent
(1991–1995, 2001–2008, 2012–present)
Other political
affiliations
  • People's Front (2011–present)
  • United Russia (2008–2012)
  • Unity (1999–2001)
  • Our Home – Russia (1995–1999)
  • CPSU (1975–1991)
Spouse
Lyudmila Shkrebneva
(m. 1983; div. 2014)
Children At least 2, Maria and Katerina
Relatives Putin family
Residences Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow
Alma mater
  • Leningrad State University (LLB)
  • Leningrad Mining Institute (Kandidat Nauk)
Awards Full list
Signature
Military service
Allegiance  Soviet Union
 Russia
Branch/service
Years of service
  • 1975–1991
  • 1997–1999
  • 2000–present
Rank
  • Colonel
  • 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation
Commands Supreme Commander-in-Chief

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia. Putin has held continuous positions as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012. He is the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin.

He was ranked the World's Most Powerful Individual by Forbes from 2013 to 2016.

Early life

Vladimir Putin with his mother
Five-year-old Vladimir Putin with his mother, Maria, in July 1958

Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (née Shelomova; 1911–1998). His grandfather, Spiridon Putin, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Putin's birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers: Albert, born in the 1930s, died in infancy, and Viktor, born in 1940, died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany's forces in World War II.

Putin's father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin
Putin's mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova

Putin's mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Early in World War II, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942. Putin's maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers of Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles disappeared on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Putin attended School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, near his home. At 12, he began to practise sambo and judo. In his free time, he enjoyed reading the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Lenin. Putin studied German at school and speaks it fluently.

Education

Putin holds a law degree from Leningrad State University (now Saint Petersburg State University).

In 1997, he received his Ph.D. in economics from Saint Petersburg Mining University.

KGB career

Vladimir Putin in KGB uniform
Putin in the KGB, c. 1980

In 1975, Putin joined the KGB. From 1985 to 1990, he served in Dresden, East Germany, using a cover identity as a translator. After the collapse of the Communist East German government, Putin returned to Leningrad. He resigned from the KGB in 1991, following the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.

Political career

In May 1990, Putin was appointed as an advisor on international affairs to the mayor of Leningrad Anatoly Sobchak. In March 1994, Putin was appointed as first deputy chairman of the Government of Saint Petersburg. In June 1996, Sobchak lost his bid for reelection, and Putin, who had led his election campaign, resigned from his position in the city administration.

On 26 March 1997, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy chief of the Presidential Staff, a post which he retained until May 1998. On 25 July 1998, Yeltsin appointed Putin director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the primary intelligence and security organization of the Russian Federation and the successor to the KGB.

On 9 August 1999, Putin was appointed acting Prime minister by President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin also announced that he wanted to see Putin as his successor.On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and Putin became Acting President of the Russian Federation. In the 2000 presidential elections Putin won in the first round with 53% of the vote.

Presidency

Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin walking in Ireland
Putin at a bilateral meeting with U.S. president Barack Obama during the G8 summit in Ireland, 17 June 2013
Vladimir Putin in Kommunarka hospital1
Putin (dressed in the yellow hazmat suit) visits coronavirus patients at a Moscow hospital, 24 March 2020
Vladimir Putin in the United States 13-16 November 2001-22
Putin's visit to the United States, November 2001
Vladimir Putin & Donald Trump in Helsinki, 16 July 2018 (2)
Putin with U.S. president Donald Trump at the summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland, 16 July 2018
Vladimir Putin met with Xi Jinping in advance of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics (1)
Putin visited China and met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on 4 February 2022

During Putin's initial presidential tenure, the Russian economy grew on average by seven percent per year, driven by economic reforms and a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas. In 2012, Russia joined the World Trade Organization.

In 2014, Putin signed a deal to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Power of Siberia, which Putin has called the "world's biggest construction project", was launched in 2019 and is expected to continue for 30 years at an ultimate cost to China of $400bn.

In cultural and social affairs Putin has collaborated closely with the Russian Orthodox Church. He supported the 2020 Russian constitutional referendum, which passed and defined marriage as a relationship between one man and a woman in the Constitution of Russia.

Putin is credited with ending the Second Chechen War and reestablishing federal control over the region. While serving as prime minister under Medvedev, he oversaw a military conflict with Georgia and enacted military and police reforms. In his third presidential term, Russia annexed Crimea and supported a war in eastern Ukraine through several military incursions, resulting in international sanctions.

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

Under Putin, Russia's relationships with NATO and the U.S. have passed through several stages. After the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. in 2001, Putin had good relations with American President George W. Bush, and many western European leaders. However, the NATO-led military intervention in Libya in 2011 prompted a widespread wave of criticism from several world leaders, including Putin.

In late 2013, Russian-American relations deteriorated further when the United States canceled a summit for the first time since 1960 after Putin gave asylum to American Edward Snowden. In 2014, Russia was suspended from the G8 group as a result of its annexation of Crimea. Putin gave a speech highly critical of the United States, accusing them of destabilizing world order and trying to "reshape the world" to its own benefit. On 21 February 2023, Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.

In his fourth presidential term, Putin launched a military operation in Ukraine, which prompted international condemnation and led to expanded sanctions against Russia.

Putinisms

Putin has produced many 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 to Russian jokes and folk sayings.

Personal life

Family

Vladimir Putin wedding-2
Putin and Lyudmila Putina during their wedding on 28 July 1983

On 28 July 1983, Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva, and they lived together in East Germany from 1985 to 1990. They have two daughters, Mariya Putina, born on 28 April 1985 in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), and Yekaterina Putina, born on 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany (now Germany).

On 6 June 2013, Putin and Lyudmila announced that their marriage was over; on 1 April 2014, the Kremlin confirmed that the divorce had been finalised.

Putin has two grandsons, born in 2012 and 2017, through Maria. He reportedly also has a granddaughter, born in 2017, through Katerina.

Pets

Vladimir Putin (2017-10-11)
Putin with one of his pets named Verni, 2017

Putin has received five dogs from various nation leaders: Konni, Buffy, Yume, Verni and Pasha. Konni died in 2014. When Putin first became president, the family had two poodles, Tosya and Rodeo. They reportedly stayed with his ex-wife Lyudmila after their divorce.

Sports

Putin watches football and supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. He also displays an interest in ice hockey and bandy, and played in a star-studded hockey game on his 63rd birthday.

Vladimir Putin in Japan 3-5 September 2000-22
In March 2022, Putin was removed from all positions in the International Judo Federation (IJF)

Putin has been practicing judo since he was 11 years old, before switching to sambo at the age of fourteen. He won competitions in both sports in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). He was awarded eighth dan of the black belt in 2012, becoming the first Russian to achieve the status. Putin also practises karate.

He co-authored a book entitled Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin in Russian (2000), and Judo: History, Theory, Practice in English (2004).

Awards and honours

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Vladímir Putin para niños

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