Vladimir Putin

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"Putin" redirects here. For other uses, see Putin (surname).
In this Eastern Slavic naming convention, the patronymic is Vladimirovich and the family name is Putin.
Vladimir Putin
Владимир Путин
Vladimir Putin (2018-03-01) 03 (cropped)(a).jpg
Putin in 2018
President of Russia
Assumed office
7 May 2012
Prime Minister
Preceded byDmitry Medvedev
In office
7 May 2000 – 7 May 2008
Acting: 31 December 1999 – 7 May 2000
Prime Minister
Preceded byBoris Yeltsin
Succeeded byDmitry Medvedev
Prime Minister of Russia
In office
8 May 2008 – 7 May 2012
PresidentDmitry Medvedev
First Deputy
Preceded byViktor Zubkov
Succeeded byDmitry Medvedev
In office
9 August 1999 – 7 May 2000
PresidentBoris Yeltsin
First Deputy
Preceded bySergei Stepashin
Succeeded byMikhail Kasyanov
Secretary of the Security Council
In office
9 March 1999 – 9 August 1999
PresidentBoris Yeltsin
Preceded byNikolay Bordyuzha
Succeeded bySergei Ivanov
Director of the Federal Security Service
In office
25 July 1998 – 29 March 1999
PresidentBoris Yeltsin
Preceded byNikolay Kovalyov
Succeeded byNikolai Patrushev
Additional positions
Leader of All-Russia People's Front
Assumed office
12 June 2013
Preceded byOffice established
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union State
In office
27 May 2008 – 18 July 2012
Chm of Sup. Cncl.
Template:NowrPavel Borodin
Preceded byViktor Zubkov
Succeeded byDmitry Medvedev
Leader of United Russia
In office
7 May 2008 – 26 May 2012
Preceded byBoris Gryzlov
Succeeded byDmitry Medvedev
Personal details
Born
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

(1952-10-07) 7 October 1952 (age 71)
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political partyIndependent (1991–1995; 2001–2008; 2012–present)
Other political
affiliations		People's Front (2011–present)
United Russia[1] (2008–2012)
Unity (1999–2001)
Our Home – Russia
(1995–1999)
CPSU (1975–1991)
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 1983; div. 2014)
[lower-alpha 1]
ChildrenAt least 2, Maria and Katerina[lower-alpha 2]
Parent(s)Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin
Maria Ivanovna Putina
ResidenceNovo-Ogaryovo, Moscow
Alma materSaint Petersburg State University (LLB)
Saint Petersburg Mining Institute (PhD)
AwardsOrder of Honour
Signature
Websiteeng.putin.kremlin.ru
Military service
AllegianceSoviet Union
Russia
Branch/serviceKGB; FSB; Russian Armed Forces
Years of service
  • 1975–1991
  • 1998–1999
  • 2000–present
RankColonel
Supreme Commander-in-Chief
Battles/wars
Владимир Путин (16-09-2021) (cropped).jpg
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Vladimir Putin

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin[lower-alpha 3] (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 1999 until 2008.[7][lower-alpha 4] He was also the prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. Putin is the second-longest current serving European president after Alexander Lukashenko.

Putin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and studied law at Leningrad State University, graduating in 1975. He worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 to join the administration of president Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and secretary of the Security Council, before being appointed as prime minister in August 1999. After the resignation of Yeltsin, Putin became acting president, and less than four months later was elected outright to his first term as president and was reelected in 2004. As he was then constitutionally limited to two consecutive terms as president, Putin served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev, and returned to the presidency in 2012 in an election marred by allegations of fraud and protests; he was reelected again in 2018. In April 2021, following a referendum, he signed into law constitutional amendments including one that would allow him to run for reelection twice more, potentially extending his presidency to 2036.[8][9]

During Putin's first tenure as president, the Russian economy grew for eight consecutive years, with GDP measured by purchasing power increasing by 72%; Russian self-assessed life satisfaction rose significantly.[10] The growth was a result of a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas, which constitute the majority of Russian exports, recovery from the post-communist depression and financial crises, a rise in foreign investment,[11] and prudent economic and fiscal policies.[12][13] Putin also led Russia to victory in the Second Chechen War. Serving as prime minister under Medvedev, he oversaw large-scale military reform and police reform, as well as Russia's victory in the Russo-Georgian War. During his third term as president, falling oil prices coupled with international sanctions imposed at the beginning of 2014 after Russia launched a military intervention in Ukraine and annexed Crimea led to GDP shrinking by 3.7% in 2015, though the Russian economy rebounded in 2016 with 0.3% GDP growth.[14] During his fourth term as president, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Russia, and Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, leading to further sanctions being imposed against Russia and him personally. Other developments under Putin have included the construction of oil and gas pipelines, the restoration of the satellite navigation system GLONASS, and the building of infrastructure for international events such as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Under Putin's leadership, Russia has shifted to authoritarianism. Experts do not consider Russia a democracy, citing the jailing and repression of political opponents, the intimidation and suppression of the free press and the lack of free and fair elections.[15][16][17] Russia has scored poorly on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, and Freedom House's Freedom in the World index.

Early life[edit]

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia),[18][19] the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (née Shelomova; 1911–1998). Spiridon Putin, Vladimir Putin's grandfather, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.[20][21] Putin's birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers, Viktor and Albert, born in the mid-1930s. Albert died in infancy and Viktor died of diphtheria during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany's forces in World War II.[22]

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.[23][24][25] Later, he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942.[26] 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.[27]

On 1 September 1960, Putin started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, near his home. He was one of a few in the class of approximately 45 pupils who were not yet members of the Young Pioneer organization. At age 12, he began to practise sambo and judo.[28] In his free time he enjoyed reading on Marx, Engels and Lenin.[29] Putin studied German at Saint Petersburg High School 281 and speaks German as a second language.[30]

Putin studied law at the Leningrad State University named after Andrei Zhdanov (now Saint Petersburg State University) in 1970 and graduated in 1975.[31] His thesis was on "The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law".[32] While there, he was required to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and remained a member until it ceased to exist (it was outlawed in August 1991).[33] Putin met Anatoly Sobchak, an assistant professor who taught business law,[lower-alpha 5] and later became the co-author of the Russian constitution and of the corruption schemes persecuted in France. Putin would be influential in Sobchak's career in Saint Petersburg. Sobchak would be influential in Putin's career in Moscow.[34]

KGB career[edit]

In 1975, Putin joined the KGB and trained at the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad.[18][35] After training, he worked in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence), before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where he monitored foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad.[18][36][37] In September 1984, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute.[38][39][40] From 1985 to 1990, he served in Dresden, East Germany,[41] using a cover identity as a translator.[42] This period in his career is mostly unclear.

Putin in the KGB, c. 1980

Masha Gessen, a Russian-American who has authored a biography about Putin, claims "Putin and his colleagues were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB".[42] Putin's work was also downplayed by former Stasi spy chief Markus Wolf and Putin's former KGB colleague Vladimir Usoltsev. According to journalist Catherine Belton, this downplaying was actually cover for Putin's involvement in KGB coordination and support for the terrorist Red Army Faction, whose members were frequently hiding in East Germany with support of the Stasi, and Dresden was preferred as a "marginal" town with low presence of Western intelligence services.[43]

According to an anonymous source, a former RAF member, at one of these meetings in Dresden the militants presented Putin with a list of weapons that were later delivered to the RAF in West Germany. Klaus Zuchold, who claimed to be recruited by Putin, said the latter also handled a neo-nazi Rainer Sonntag, and attempted to recruit an author of a study on poisons.[43] Putin also reportedly met Germans to be recruited for wireless communications affairs together with an interpreter. He was involved in wireless communications technologies in South-East Asia due to trips of German engineers, recruited by him, there and to the West.[37]

According to Putin's official biography, during the fall of the Berlin Wall that began on 9 November 1989, he saved the files of the Soviet Cultural Center (House of Friendship) and of the KGB villa in Dresden for the official authorities of the would-be united Germany to prevent demonstrators, including KGB and Stasi agents, from obtaining and destroying them. He then supposedly burnt only the KGB files, in a few hours, but saved the archives of the Soviet Cultural Center for the German authorities. Nothing is told about the selection criteria during this burning; for example, concerning Stasi files or about files of other agencies of the German Democratic Republic or of the USSR. He explained that many documents were left to Germany only because the furnace burst. But many documents of the KGB villa were sent to Moscow.[44]

After the collapse of the Communist East German government, Putin was to resign from active KGB service because of suspicions aroused regarding his loyalty during demonstrations in Dresden and earlier, though the KGB and the Soviet Red Army still operated in eastern Germany, and he returned to Leningrad in early 1990 as a member of the "active reserves", where he worked for about three months with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov,[37] while working on his doctoral dissertation.

There, he looked for new KGB recruits, watched the student body, and renewed his friendship with his former professor, Anatoly Sobchak, soon to be the Mayor of Leningrad.[45] Putin claims that he resigned with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 20 August 1991,[45] on the second day of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt against the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.[46] Putin said: "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".[47]

In 1999, Putin described communism as "a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization".[48]

Political career[edit]

Main articles: Political career of Vladimir Putin and Russia under Vladimir Putin

Domestic policies[edit]

Main article: Domestic policy of Vladimir Putin

Foreign policy[edit]

Main article: Foreign policy of Vladimir Putin
See also: Foreign relations of Russia and List of international presidential trips made by Vladimir Putin

Public image[edit]

Main article: Public image of Vladimir Putin
Putin opens the Wall of Grief, a monument to victims of Stalinist repression, 30 October 2017

Polls and rankings[edit]

According to a June 2007 public opinion survey, Putin's approval rating was 81%, the second highest of any leader in the world that year.[49] In January 2013, at the time of the 2011–2013 Russian protests, Putin's approval rating fell to 62%, the lowest figure since 2000 and a ten-point drop over two years.[50]

By May 2014, Putin's approval rating hit its highest since 2008, and was 83%. After EU and U.S. sanctions against Russian officials as a result of the crisis in Ukraine, Putin's approval rating reached 87%, according to a survey published on 6 August 2014.[51] In February 2015, based on new domestic polling, Putin was ranked the world's most popular politician.[52] In June 2015, Putin's approval rating climbed to 89%, an all-time high.[53][54][55] In 2016, the approval rating was 81%.[56]

Observers saw Putin's high approval ratings in 2010's as a consequence of significant improvements in living standards, and Russia's reassertion of itself on the world scene during his presidency.[57][58]

Despite high approval for Putin, confidence in the Russian economy was low, dropping to levels in 2016 that rivaled the recent lows in 2009 at the height of the global economic crisis. Just 14% of Russians in 2016 said their national economy was getting better, and 18% said this about their local economies.[59] Putin's performance at reining in corruption is also unpopular among Russians. Newsweek reported in June 2017 that "An opinion poll by the Moscow-based Levada Center indicated that 67 percent held Putin personally responsible for high-level corruption".[60]

Vladimir Putin approval 1999–2020 (Levada, 2020)
Vladimir Putin's public approval 1999–2020 (Levada, 2020)[61]

In July 2018, Putin's approval rating fell to 63% and just 49% would vote for Putin if presidential elections were held.[62] Levada poll results published in September 2018 showed Putin's personal trustworthiness levels at 39% (decline from 59% in November 2017)[63] with the main contributing factor being the presidential support of the unpopular pension reform and economic stagnation.[64][65] In October 2018, two-thirds of Russians surveyed in Levada poll agreed that "Putin bears full responsibility for the problems of the country" which has been attributed[66] to decline of a popular belief in "good tsar and bad boyars", a traditional attitude towards justifying failures of top of ruling hierarchy in Russia.[67]

In January 2019, the percentage of Russians trusting the president hit a then-historic minimum – 33.4%.[68] It declined further to 31.7% in May 2019[69] which led to a dispute between the VCIOM and President's administration office, who accused it of incorrectly using an open question, after which VCIOM repeated the poll with a closed question getting 72.3%.[70] Nonetheless, in April 2019 Gallup poll showed a record number of Russians (20%) willing to permanently emigrate from Russia.[71] The decline is even larger in the 17–25 age group, "who find themselves largely disconnected from the country's aging leadership, nostalgic Soviet rhetoric and nepotistic agenda", according to a report prepared by Vladimir Milov. The percentage of people willing to emigrate permanently in this age group is 41% and 60% has favorable views on the United States (three times more than in the 55+ age group).[72] Decline in support for president and the government is also visible in other polls, such as rapidly growing readiness to protest against poor living conditions.[70]

In May 2020, amid the COVID-19 crisis, Putin's approval rating was 67.9%, measured by VCIOM when respondents were presented a list of names (closed question),[73] and 27% when respondents were expected to name politicians they trust (open question).[74] In a closed-question survey conducted by Levada, the approval rating was 59%[75] which has been attributed to continued post-Crimea economic stagnation but also an apathetic response to the pandemic crisis in Russia.[76] In another May 2021 Levada poll, 33% indicated Putin in response to "who would you vote for this weekend?" among Moscow respondents and 40% outside of Moscow.[77] The Levada Center survey released in October 2021 found 53% of respondents saying they trusted Putin.[78]

Polls conducted in November 2021 on the wake of failure of Russian COVID-19 vaccination campaign indicated that distrust of Putin personally are one of the major contributing factor for vaccine hesitancy among citizens, with regional polls indicating numbers as low as 20–30% in Volga Federal District.[79]

The Levada Center survey showed that 58% of surveyed Russians supported the 2017 Russian protests against high-level corruption.[80]

Assessments[edit]

Critics state that Putin has moved Russia in an autocratic direction, weakening the system of representative government advocated by Boris Yeltsin.[81] Putin has been described as a "dictator" by political opponent Garry Kasparov,[82] as a "bully" and "arrogant" by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,[83][84][85] and as "self-centered" by the Dalai Lama.[86] Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in 2014 that the West has demonized Putin.[87] Egon Krenz, former leader of East Germany, said the Cold War never ended and that, "After weak presidents like Gorbachev and Yeltsin, it is a great fortune for Russia that it has [President Vladimir] Putin."[88]

Many Russians credit Putin for reviving Russia's fortunes.[89] Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, while acknowledging the flawed democratic procedures and restrictions on media freedom during the Putin presidency, said that Putin had pulled Russia out of chaos at the end of the Yeltsin years, and that Russians "must remember that Putin saved Russia from the beginning of a collapse."[89][90] In 2015, opposition politician Boris Nemtsov said that Putin was turning Russia into a "raw materials colony" of China.[91] Chechen Republic head and Putin supporter, Ramzan Kadyrov, states that Putin saved both the Chechen people and Russia.[92]

Russia has suffered democratic backsliding during Putin's tenure. Freedom House has listed Russia as being "not free" since 2005.[93] Experts do not generally consider Russia to be a democracy, citing purges and jailing of political opponents, curtailed press freedom, and the lack of free and fair elections.[94][95][16][17][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104] In 2004, Freedom House warned that Russia's "retreat from freedom marks a low point not registered since 1989, when the country was part of the Soviet Union."[105] The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated Russia as "authoritarian" since 2011,[106] whereas it had previously been considered a "hybrid regime" (with "some form of democratic government" in place) as late as 2007.[107] According to political scientist Larry Diamond, writing in 2015, "no serious scholar would consider Russia today a democracy".[108]

See also: Media freedom in Russia, Human rights in Russia, and Internet censorship in Russia

Personal image[edit]

Main article: Public image of Vladimir Putin
Putin driving an F1 car, 2010 (see video)

Putin cultivates 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,[109] part of a public relations approach that, according to Wired, "deliberately cultivates the macho, take-charge superhero image".[110] For example, in 2007, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge photograph of a shirtless Putin vacationing in the Siberian mountains under the headline: "Be Like Putin."[111] Numerous Kremlinologists have accused Putin of seeking to create a cult of personality around himself, an accusation that the Kremlin has denied.[112] Some of Putin's activities have been criticised for being staged;[113][114] outside of Russia, his macho image has been the subject of parody.[115][116][117] Putin is believed to be self-conscious about his height, which has been estimated by Kremlin insiders at between 155 and 165 centimetres (5 feet 1 inch and 5 feet 5 inches) tall but is usually given at 170 centimetres (5 feet 7 inches).[118][119]

There are many songs about Putin,[120] and Putin's name and image are widely used in advertisement and product branding.[110] 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.[121] In 2015, his advisor Mikhail Lesin was found dead after "days of excessive consumption of alcohol", though this was later ruled an accident.[122]

Publication recognition in the United States[edit]

In 2007, he was the Time Person of the Year.[123][124] In 2015, he was No. 1 on the Time's Most Influential People List.[125][126] Forbes ranked him the World's Most Powerful Individual every year from 2013 to 2016.[127] He was ranked the second most powerful individual by Forbes in 2018.[128]

Putinisms[edit]

Putin has produced many aphorisms and catch-phrases known as putinisms.[129] 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.[129]

Putin sometimes uses Russian criminal jargon (known as "fenya" in Russian), albeit not always correctly.[130]

Electoral history[edit]

Main article: Electoral history of Vladimir Putin

Personal life[edit]

Family[edit]

Putin and Lyudmila Putina at their wedding, 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 28 April 1985 in Leningrad, and Yekaterina Putina, born 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany.[131]

An investigation by Proekt Media published in November 2020 alleged that Putin has another daughter, Elizaveta (known as Luiza Rozova[132]), born March 2003,[133] with Svetlana Krivonogikh.[4][134]

In April 2008, the Moskovsky Korrespondent reported that Putin had divorced Lyudmila and was engaged to marry Olympic gold medalist Alina Kabaeva, a former rhythmic gymnast and Russian politician.[2] The story was denied[2] and the newspaper was shut down shortly thereafter.[3] Putin and Lyudmila continued to make public appearances together as spouses, while the status of his relationship with Kabaeva became a topic of speculation.[135][136][137][138] In the subsequent years, there were frequent unsubstantiated reports that Putin and Kabaeva had multiple children together, although these reports were denied.[139]

On 6 June 2013, Putin and Lyudmila announced that their marriage was over, and, on 1 April 2014, the Kremlin confirmed that the divorce had been finalised.[140][141][142] In 2015, Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to a daughter; Putin is alleged to be the father.[139][136][5] In 2019, Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to twin sons by Putin.[6][143]

Putin has two grandsons, born in 2012 and 2017.[144][145]

His cousin, Igor Putin, was a director at Moscow-based Master Bank and was accused in a number of money laundering scandals.[146][147]

Personal wealth[edit]

See also: Panama Papers

Official 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, and miscellaneous other assets.[148][149] Putin's reported 2006 income totaled 2 million rubles (approximately $80,000). In 2012, Putin reported an income of 3.6 million rubles ($113,000).[150][151]

Putin has been photographed wearing a number of expensive wristwatches, collectively valued at $700,000, nearly six times his annual salary.[152][153] Putin has been known on occasion to give watches valued at thousands of dollars as gifts to peasants and factory workers.[154]

Putin's close associate Arkady Rotenberg is mentioned in the Panama Papers, pictured 2018

According to Russian opposition politicians and journalists, Putin secretly possesses a multi-billion-dollar fortune[155][156] via successive ownership of stakes in a number of Russian companies.[157][158] According to one editorial in The Washington Post, "Putin might not technically own these 43 aircraft, but, as the sole political power in Russia, he can act like they're his".[159] Russian RIA journalist argued that "[Western] intelligence agencies (...) could not find anything". These contradictory claims were analyzed by Polygraph.info[160] which looked at a number of reports by Western (Anders Åslund estimate of $100–160 billion) and Russian (Stanislav Belkovsky estimated of $40 billion) analysts, CIA (estimate of $40 billion in 2007) as well as counterarguments of Russian media. Polygraph concluded:

There is uncertainty on the precise sum of Putin's wealth, and the assessment by the Director of U.S. National Intelligence apparently is not yet complete. However, with the pile of evidence and documents in the Panama Papers and in the hands of independent investigators such as those cited by Dawisha, Polygraph.info finds that Danilov's claim that Western intelligence agencies have not been able to find evidence of Putin's wealth to be misleading

— Polygraph.info, "Are 'Putin's Billions' a Myth?"

In April 2016, 11 million documents belonging to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The name of Vladimir Putin does not appear in any of the records, and Putin denied his involvement with the company.[161] However, various media have reported on three of Putin's associates on the list.[162] According to the Panama Papers leak, close trusted associates of Putin own offshore companies worth US$2 billion in total.[163] The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung regards the possibility of Putin's family profiting from this money as plausible.[164][165]

According to the paper, the US$2 billion had been "secretly shuffled through banks and shadow companies linked to Putin's associates", such as construction billionaires Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, and Bank Rossiya, previously identified by the U.S. State Department as being treated by Putin as his personal bank account, had been central in facilitating this. It concludes that "Putin has shown he is willing to take aggressive steps to maintain secrecy and protect [such] communal assets."[166][167] A significant proportion of the money trail leads to Putin's best friend Sergei Roldugin. Although a musician, and in his own words, not a businessman, it appears he has accumulated assets valued at $100m, and possibly more. It has been suggested he was picked for the role because of his low profile.[162] There have been speculations that Putin, in fact, owns the funds,[168] and Roldugin just acted as a proxy.[169]

Garry Kasparov said, "[Putin] controls enough money, probably more than any other individual in the history of human race".[170]

Residences[edit]

Official government residences[edit]

Putin receives Barack Obama at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, 2009

As president and prime-minister, Putin has lived in numerous official residences throughout the country.[171] These residences include: the Moscow Kremlin, Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Oblast, Gorki-9 [ru] near Moscow, Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, Dolgiye Borody [ru] in Novgorod Oblast, and Riviera in Sochi.[172]

In August 2012, critics of Putin listed the ownership of 20 villas and palaces, nine of which were built during Putin's 12 years in power.[173]

Personal residences[edit]

Soon after Putin returned from his KGB service in Dresden, East Germany, he 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. After the dacha 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 nearby. In 1996, the group formally registered their fraternity as a co-operative society, calling it Ozero ("Lake") and turning it into a gated community.[174]

A massive Italianate-style mansion costing an alleged US$1 billion[175] and dubbed "Putin's Palace" is under construction near the Black Sea village of Praskoveevka. 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 the palace.[176] He also said that 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, have been built for Putin's private use.[177] Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Kolesnikov's allegations against Putin as untrue, saying that "Putin has never had any relationship to this palace."[178] On 19 January 2021, two days after Alexei Navalny was detained by Russian authorities upon his return to Russia, a video investigation by him and the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was published accusing Putin of using fraudulently obtained funds to build the estate for himself in what he called "the world's biggest bribe." In the investigation, Navalny said that the estate is 39 times the size of Monaco and cost over 100 billion rubles ($1.35 billion) to construct. It also showed aerial footage of the estate via a drone and a detailed floorplan of the palace that Navalny said was given by a contractor, which he compared to photographs from inside the palace that were leaked onto the Internet in 2011. He also detailed an elaborate corruption scheme allegedly involving Putin's inner circle that allowed Putin to hide billions of dollars to build the estate.[179][180][181]

Pets[edit]

Main article: Pets of Vladimir Putin

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.[182]

Religion[edit]

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

Putin is Russian Orthodox. His mother was a devoted Christian believer who attended the Russian Orthodox Church, while his father was an atheist.[183] Though his mother kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly, despite government persecution of her religion at that time. His mother secretly baptized him as a baby, and she regularly took him to services.[26]

According to Putin, his religious awakening began after a serious car crash involving his wife in 1993, and a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996.[183] Shortly before an official visit to Israel, Putin's mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed. Putin states, "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since."[26] When asked in 2007 whether he believes in God, he responded, "... 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."[184] Putin's rumoured confessor is Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov.[185] However, the sincerity of his Christianity has been rejected by his former advisor Sergei Pugachev.[186]

Sports[edit]

Putin watches football and supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.[187] He also displays an interest in ice hockey and bandy.[188]

Putin has been practicing judo since he was 11 years old,[189] before switching to sambo at the age of fourteen.[190] 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.[191] Putin also practises karate.[192] He co-authored a book entitled Judo with Vladimir Putin in Russian, and Judo: History, Theory, Practice in English (2004).[193] Benjamin Wittes, a black belt in taekwondo and aikido and editor of Lawfare, has disputed Putin's martial arts skills, stating that there is no video evidence of Putin displaying any real noteworthy judo skills.[194][195]

Honours[edit]

Civilian awards presented by different countries[edit]

Date Country Decoration Presenter Notes
7 March 2001 Vietnam Vietnam Hochiminh Order ribbon.png Order of Ho Chi Minh[196] Vietnam's second highest distinction
2004 Kazakhstan Ord.GoldenEagle-ribbon.gif Order of the Golden Eagle[197] Kazakhstan's highest distinction
22 September 2006 France Legion Honneur GC ribbon.svg Légion d'honneur[198] President Jacques Chirac Grand-Croix (Grand Cross) rank is the highest French decoration
2007 Tajikistan Order Ismoili Somoni Rib.png Order of Ismoili Somoni[199] Tajikistan's highest distinction
12 February 2007 Saudi Arabia Spange des König-Abdulaziz-Ordens.png Order of Abdulaziz al Saud[200] King Abdullah Saudi Arabia's highest civilian award
10 September 2007 UAE Order Zayed rib.png Order of Zayed[201] Sheikh Khalifa UAE's highest civil decoration
2 April 2010 Venezuela VEN Order of the Liberator - Grand Cordon BAR.png Order of the Liberator[202] President Hugo Chávez Venezuela's highest distinction
4 October 2013 Monaco MCO Order of Saint-Charles - Grand Cross BAR.png Order of Saint-Charles[203] Prince Albert Monaco's highest decoration
11 July 2014 Cuba Ribbon jose marti.png Order of José Martí[204] President Raúl Castro Cuba's highest decoration
16 October 2014 Serbia Orden Republike Srbije.gif Order of the Republic of Serbia[205] President Tomislav Nikolić Grand Collar, Serbia's highest award
3 October 2017 Turkmenistan Order "For contribution to the development of cooperation" President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
22 November 2017 Kyrgyzstan KRG Order Manas.png Order of Manas President Almazbek Atambayev
8 June 2018 China Order of Friendship[206] President Xi Jinping People's Republic of China's highest order of honour
28 May 2019 Kazakhstan OrdenNazar.png Order of Nazarbayev[207] Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev

Honorary doctorates[edit]

Date University/ Institute
2001 Baku Slavic University[208]
2001 Yerevan State University[209]
2001 Athens University[210]
2011 University of Belgrade[211]

Other awards[edit]

Year Award Notes
2006 Order of Sheikh ul-Islam A Muslim order,[212] awarded for his role in interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians in the region.[213]
24 March 2011 Order of Saint Sava[214] Serbian Orthodox Church's highest distinction.
15 November 2011 Confucius Peace Prize The China International Peace Research Centre 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.[215] 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".[216]
2015 Angel of Peace Medal Pope Francis presented Putin with the Angel of Peace Medal,[217] which is a customary gift to presidents visiting the Vatican.[218]

Recognition[edit]

Year Award/Recognition Description
2007 Time: Person of the Year "His final year as Russia's president has been his most successful yet. At home, he secured his political future. Abroad, he expanded his outsize—if not always benign—influence on global affairs."[219]
December 2007 Expert: Person of the Year A Russian business-oriented weekly magazine named Putin as its Person of the Year.[220]
5 October 2008 Vladimir Putin Avenue 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.[221]
February 2011 Vladimir Putin Peak The parliament of Kyrgyzstan named a peak in Tian Shan mountains Vladimir Putin Peak.[222]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ The Putins officially announced their separation in 2013 and the Kremlin confirmed the divorce had been finalized in 2014; however, it has been alleged that Putin and Lyudmila divorced in 2008.[2][3]
  2. ↑ Putin has two daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila. He is also alleged to have a third daughter with Svetlana Krivonogikh,[4] and a fourth daughter and twin sons with Alina Kabaeva,[5][6] although these reports have not been officially confirmed.
  3. ↑ /ˈpuːtɪn/; Russian: Владимир Владимирович Путин, [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn] (About this soundlisten)
  4. ↑ Putin took office as Prime Minister in August 1999 and became Acting President while remaining Prime Minister on 31 December 1999; he was later officially elected as President on 7 May 2000.
  5. ↑ Russian: хозяйственное право, romanized: khozyaystvennoye pravo.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "Vladimir Putin quits as head of Russia's ruling party". 24 April 2012. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022 – via The Daily Telegraph.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Putin Romance Rumors Keep Public Riveted". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 18 April 2008. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Herszenhorn, David M. (5 May 2012). Written at Moscow. "In the Spotlight of Power, Putin Keeps His Private Life Veiled in Shadows". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Zakharov, Andrey; Badanin, Roman; Rubin, Mikhail (25 November 2020). "An investigation into how a close acquaintance of Vladimir Putin attained a piece of Russia". maski-proekt.media. Proekt. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ralph, Pat; Cranley, Ellen (7 December 2018). "Putin has 2, maybe 3, daughters he never talks about – here's everything we know about them". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Campbell, Matthew (26 May 2019). "Kremlin silent on reports Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, his 'secret first lady', have had twins". The Times. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  7. ↑ "Timeline: Vladimir Putin – 20 tumultuous years as Russian President or PM". Reuters. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  8. ↑ "Putin signs law allowing him to serve 2 more terms as Russia's president". www.cbsnews.com.
  9. ↑ "Putin — already Russia's longest leader since Stalin — signs law that may let him stay in power until 2036". USA TODAY.
  10. ↑ Guriev, Sergei; Tsyvinski, Aleh (2010). "Challenges Facing the Russian Economy after the Crisis". In Anders Åslund; Sergei Guriev; Andrew C. Kuchins (eds.). Russia After the Global Economic Crisis. Peterson Institute for International Economics; Centre for Strategic and International Studies; New Economic School. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-88132-497-6.
  11. ↑ "ПОСТУПЛЕНИЕ ИНОСТРАННЫХ ИНВЕСТИЦИЙ ПО ТИПАМ". Rosstat
  12. ↑ Putin: Russia's Choice, (Routledge 2007), by Richard Sakwa, Chapter 9.
  13. ↑ Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin, Yale University Press (2013), by Ben Judah, page 17.
  14. ↑ "It's Official: Sanctioned Russia Now Recession Free". Forbes. 3 April 2017.
  15. ↑ Frye, Timothy (2021). Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia. Princeton University Press. p. Template:Page?. ISBN 978-0-691-21246-3.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Gill, Graeme. "Building an Authoritarian Polity: Russia in Post-Soviet Times". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Reuter, Ora John (2017). The Origins of Dominant Parties: Building Authoritarian Institutions in Post-Soviet Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316761649. ISBN 978-1-316-76164-9.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Rosenberg, Matt (12 August 2016). "When Was St. Petersburg Known as Petrograd and Leningrad?". About.com. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  19. ↑ "Prime Minister of the Russian Federation – Biography". 14 May 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2010. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  20. ↑ "Putin says grandfather cooked for Stalin and Lenin". reuters.com. Reuters. 11 March 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  21. ↑ Sebestyen, Victor (2018), Lenin the Dictator, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 422, ISBN 978-1-4746-0105-4
  22. ↑ "At Event, a Rare Look at Putin's Life". The New York Times. 27 January 2012.
  23. ↑ Vladimir Putin; Nataliya Gevorkyan; Natalya Timakova; Andrei Kolesnikov (2000). First Person. trans. Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. PublicAffairs. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-58648-018-9.
  24. ↑ First Person An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin The New York Times, 2000.
  25. ↑ Putin's Obscure Path From KGB to Kremlin Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Los Angeles Times, 19 March 2000.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 (Sakwa 2008, p. 3)
  27. ↑ Sakwa, Richard. Putin Redux: Power and Contradiction in Contemporary Russia (2014), p. 2.
  28. ↑ "Prime Minister". Russia.rin.ru. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
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  31. ↑ Hoffman, David (30 January 2000). "Putin's Career Rooted in Russia's KGB". The Washington Post.
  32. ↑ Lynch, Allen. Vladimir Putin and Russian Statecraft, p. 15 (Potomac Books 2011).
  33. ↑ Владимир Путин. От Первого Лица. Chapter 6 Archived 30 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ↑ Pribylovsky, Vladimir (2010). "Valdimir Putin" (PDF). Власть–2010 (60 биографий) (in русский). Moscow: Panorama. pp. 132–139. ISBN 978-5-94420-038-9.
  35. ↑ "Vladimir Putin as a Spy Working Undercover from 1983". 30 June 1983. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2017 – via YouTube.
  36. ↑ (Sakwa 2008, pp. 8–9)
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Hoffman, David (30 January 2000). "Putin's Career Rooted in Russia's KGB". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  38. ↑ Chris Hutchins (2012). Putin. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-78088-114-0. But these were the honeymoon days and she was already expecting their first child when he was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute in September 1984 [...] At Red Banner, students were given a nom de guerre beginning with the same letter as their surname. Thus Comrade Putin became Comrade Platov.
  39. ↑ Andrew Jack (2005). Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy?. Oxford University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-19-029336-9. He returned to work in Leningrad's First Department for intelligence for four and a half years, and then attended the elite Andropov Red Banner Institute for intelligence training before his posting to the German Democratic Republic in 1985.
  40. ↑ Vladimir Putin; Nataliya Gevorkyan; Natalya Timakova; Andrei Kolesnikov (2000). First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Public Affairs. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-7867-2327-0. I worked there for about four and a half years, and then I went to Moscow for training at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, which is now the Academy of Foreign Intelligence.
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  46. ↑ R. Sakwa Putin: Russia's Choice, pp. 10–11.
  47. ↑ R. Sakwa Putin: Russia's Choice, p. 11.
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  174. ↑ How the 1980s Explains Vladimir Putin. The Ozero group. By Fiona Hill & Clifford G. Gaddy, The Atlantic, 14 February 2013.
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  208. ↑ "The Academic Council of Baku Slavic University at its meeting held on January 8, 2001 by the unanimous decision awarded the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin the title of BSU Honorary Doctor for his service in extending and strengthening scientific, economic and social relations between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation". 8 January 2001.
  209. ↑ "Putin Concludes Visit to Armenia Lays Wreath at Genocide Monument". Asbarez. 17 September 2001.
  210. ↑ "Putin receives honorary doctorate from Athens University". Athens News Agency. 7 December 2001.
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  212. ↑ "Alexy II is awarded the highest Muslim Order". Interfax-Religion. 4 July 2006.
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  221. ↑ Nemenov, Alexander (24 September 2019). "The memories Chechnya hold". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  222. ↑ Liotta, Paul (7 October 2015). "On his birthday, 7 things you might not know about Russian president Vladimir Putin". New York Daily News. Retrieved 9 November 2021.

Further reading[edit]

See also: Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union
External video
Presentation by Masha Gessen on The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin 8 March 2012, C-SPAN

External links[edit]

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