Vladimir Putin: From the KGB to running Russia for nearly three decades

With an 87 per cent vote share, 71-year-old Putin has cemented his power, and if he completes his six-year tenure, he will become the longest-reigning Russian leader ever

After securing a landslide victory in the Russian presidential elections, ex-intelligence officer Vladimir Putin extended his reign for another the six-year term. The 71-year-old former KGB lieutenant colonel secured 87.8 per cent votes in an election marred by accusations of a hand-picked, toothless opposition, laying the red carpet for an easy win for the incumbent President. The three-day election was marked by a rapid increase in bombing Ukraine, and vandalism at polling stations.

And soon after coming to power, the Russian President issued a stern warning to the West that any direct conflict between NATO and Russia would result in World War 3, but ‘nobody wants that to happen’.

 

Putin will now serve a six-year term as the Russian President. If he completes his tenure, he will overtake Catherine 'the Great' as the longest-serving Russian leader. The former empress reigned over Russia for 34 years, four months between 1762 and 1796. The former general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, served for 30 years between 1922 and 1952.

Who is Vladimir Putin?

Putin has been the Russian President since 2012 for consecutive terms, a journey which began as the country's Prime Minister from 1999-2000, followed by President post between 2000-2008, and again as Prime Minister from 2008-2012. Prior to becoming the top leader, Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years before resigning in 1991 for a career in politics. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he transitioned into politics, serving in various administrative roles in Saint Petersburg. His affiliation with Anatoly Sobchak, the city's mayor at the time, laid the foundation for his rapid rise.

Putin's life before politics

Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Putin had humble beginnings. His mother was a factory worker, and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy in the early 1930s. According to his official biography, he graduated in law at the Saint Petersburg State University in 1975 and joined the KGB. In 1984, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute and served in Dresden, East Germany, using a cover identity as a translator.

In 1989, he reportedly saved the files of the Soviet Cultural Center and the KGB villa in Dresden for the official authorities of the soon-to-be united Germany to prevent demonstrators, including KGB and Stasi agents, from obtaining and destroying them. He explained that many documents were left in Germany only because the furnace burst, but many documents from the KGB villa were sent to Moscow.

Following the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, Putin resigned from the KGB as he did not want to be part of the intelligence in the new administration and embarked on a career in politics.

Foray into politics

In 1994, he was appointed as First Deputy Chairman of the Government of Saint Petersburg and in May 1995, he organised the Saint Petersburg branch of the pro-government Our Home – Russia political party, and until June 1997, he was the leader of the branch.

Putin's political trajectory shifted decisively in 1999 when then-President Boris Yeltsin appointed him Prime Minister. Within a year, Yeltsin resigned, and Putin assumed the presidency. His leadership style, marked by assertiveness and pragmatism, aimed to restore stability and consolidate power in Russia after years of turbulence. 

Under his first tenure as President, the country's economy grew for eight consecutive years. 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, and prudent economic and fiscal policies.

Putin's policies, including centralised control over media and suppression of political dissent, have drawn consistent criticism both domestically and internationally.

Vladimir Putin's presidential terms

In March 2004, Putin was elected to the presidency for a second term. Subsequently in the 2007 elections, Putin's United Russia party won 64.24 per cent of the popular vote. But barred by the Constitution to have a third consecutive term, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected as Putin’s successor in a power-switching operation. Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia, maintaining his political dominance.

In September 2011, Medvedev announced that he would recommend the party nominate Putin as its presidential candidate. Despite accusations of vote rigging, Putin won the 2012 Russian presidential elections. His fourth Presidential run began in 2018, with Putin winning more than 76 per cent of the vote, and in 2020, he suggested major constitutional amendments that could extend his political power after his presidency.

His tenure has been marked by significant events such as the Second Chechen War, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and military interventions in Syria. But the watershed moment of Putin's rule came in February 2022, when Russia launched an attack on Ukraine for its ambitions of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Following the invasion, Russia and its top individuals have been put under relentless strict sanctions by western countries and the war still rages on.

Discontent against dissent

Although marked by an aggressive politics throughout his tenure, off-late, the Russian President's disdain against any form of criticism has been in the spotlight. All of Putin's major opponents are dead, in prison or exiled, and he has been at the helm of an unrelenting crackdown on critics of his rule or his military offensive on Ukraine.

A key-rising figure against Putin administration's corruption and one-sided control, anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny had labelled Russia under Putin as a 'party of crooks and thieves'. What followed soon was an alleged state-sponsored nerve agent poison attack in 2020 before he was thrown behind bars in January 2021, where he died last February.

Similarly, in 2011 during the largest mass protests in Russian cities since the collapse of the USSR, the protest leader Boris Nemstov, a liberal and former deputy Prime Minister in the 1990s, was slowly emerging as a formidable opponent for Putin. But in 2015, Nemstov was shot dead on a bridge in front of the Kremlin.

Recently, Putin secured the support of the Orthodox Church, and he built a National Guard, or Rosgvardiya, that reports directly to him.