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Latest News: Vladimir Putin Announces Russian Presidential Run
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday he will seek to remain in the position for a fifth term during Russia’s upcoming elections on March 17, If re-elected, Putin could remain in power through because of the six-year term length.
“I won’t hide it from you—I had various thoughts about it over time, but now, you’re right, it’s necessary to make a decision,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
Vladimir v putin biography man on fire With Putin barred by the Russian Constitution from seeking a third consecutive presidential term, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected president. In September , Medvedev proposed to the United Russia Congress in Moscow, that Putin should run for the presidency again in , an offer Putin happily accepted. From a young age, Putin was keen on sports, especially martial arts, such as Judo. Famous Political Figures.“I will run for president of the Russian Federation.”
According to the Associated Press, the year-old Putin, who was first elected president in March , has twice amended the Russian constitution so that he could theoretically remain in power until He is already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin.
Who Is Vladimir Putin?
In , Russian president Boris Yeltsin dismissed his prime minister and promoted former KGB officer Vladimir Putin in his place.
In December , Yeltsin resigned, appointing Putin president, and he was re-elected in In April , he made a historic visit to Israel—the first visit there by any Kremlin leader. Putin could not run for the presidency again in , but was appointed prime minister by his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin was re-elected to the presidency in March and later won a fourth term.
In , he was reportedly nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
BORN: October 7,
BIRTHPLACE: Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia
SPOUSE: Lyudmila Shkrebneva ()
CHILDREN: Maria, Yekaterina
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
Early Life and Political Career
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg), Russia, on October 7, He grew up with his family in a communal apartment, attending the local grammar and high schools, where he developed an interest in sports. After graduating from Leningrad State University with a law degree in , Putin began his career in the KGB as an intelligence officer. Stationed mainly in East Germany, he held that position until , retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Upon returning to Russia, Putin held an administrative position at the University of Leningrad, and after the fall of communism in , he became an adviser to liberal politician Anatoly Sobchak.
Vladimir putin date of birth: In April , he made a historic visit to Israel—the first visit there by any Kremlin leader. Putin was against invading Libya in On March 4, , Putin won the presidency for a third time with 64 percent of the vote. Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI is investigating whether officials of the Trump campaign organization colluded with high ranking Russian officials to influence the election.
When Sobchak was elected mayor of Leningrad later that year, Putin became his head of external relations, and by , Putin had become Sobchak’s first deputy mayor.
After Sobchak’s defeat in , Putin resigned his post and moved to Moscow. There, in , Putin was appointed deputy head of management under Boris Yeltsin’s presidential administration.
In that position, he was in charge of the Kremlin's relations with the regional governments.
Shortly afterward, Putin was appointed head of the Federal Security Service, an arm of the former KGB, as well as head of Yeltsin’s Security Council. In August , Yeltsin dismissed his prime minister, Sergey Stapashin, along with his cabinet, and promoted Putin in his place.
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President of Russia: First and Second Terms
In December , Boris Yeltsin resigned as president of Russia and appointed Putin acting president until official elections were held, and in March , Putin was elected to his first term with 53 percent of the vote.
Promising both political and economic reforms, Putin set about restructuring the government and launching criminal investigations into the business dealings of high-profile Russian citizens. He also continued Russia's military campaign in Chechnya.
In September , in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States, Putin announced Russia’s support for the U.S.
in its anti-terror campaign. However, when the U.S.’s “war on terror” shifted focus to the ousting of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Putin joined German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and French President Jacques Chirac in opposition of the plan.
In , Putin was re-elected to the presidency, and in April of the following year made a historic visit to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon—marking the first visit to Israel by any Kremlin leader.
Due to constitutional term limits, Putin was prevented from running for the presidency in (That same year, presidential terms in Russia were extended from four to six years.) However, when his protégé Dmitry Medvedev succeeded him as president in March , he immediately appointed Putin as Russia’s prime minister, allowing Putin to maintain a primary position of influence for the next four years.
Third Term as President
On March 4, , Vladimir Putin was re-elected to his third term as president.
After widespread protests and allegations of electoral fraud, he was inaugurated on May 7, , and shortly after taking office appointed Medvedev as prime minister. Once more at the helm, Putin has continued to make controversial changes to Russia’s domestic affairs and foreign policy.
In December , Putin signed into a law a ban on the U.S.
adoption of Russian children.
According to Putin, the legislation—which took effect on January 1, —aimed to make it easier for Russians to adopt native orphans. However, the adoption ban spurred international controversy, reportedly leaving nearly 50 Russian children—who were in the final phases of adoption with U.S. citizens at the time that Putin signed the law—in legal limbo.
Putin further strained relations with the United States the following year when he granted asylum to Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the United States for leaking classified information from the National Security Agency.
In response to Putin's actions, U.S. President Barack Obama canceled a planned meeting with Putin that August.
Around this time, Putin also upset many people with his new anti-gay laws. He made it illegal for gay couples to adopt in Russia and placed a ban on propagandizing “nontraditional” sexual relationships to minors.
The legislation led to widespread international protest.
Chemical Weapons in Syria
In September , tensions rose between the United States and Syria over Syria’s possession of chemical weapons, with the U.S. threatening military action if the weapons were not relinquished. The immediate crisis was averted, however, when the Russian and U.S.
governments brokered a deal whereby those weapons would be destroyed.
On September 11, , The New York Times published an op-ed piece by Putin titled “A Plea for Caution From Russia.” In the article, Putin spoke directly to the U.S.’s position in taking action against Syria, stating that such a unilateral move could result in the escalation of violence and unrest in the Middle East.
Putin further asserted that the U.S.
claim that Bashar al-Assad used the chemical weapons on civilians might be misplaced, with the more likely explanation being the unauthorized use of the weapons by Syrian rebels. He closed the piece by welcoming the continuation of an open dialogue between the involved nations to avoid further conflict in the region.
Winter Olympics
Vladimir Putin waves to spectators while he attends the closing ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
In , Russia hosted the Winter Olympics, which were held in Sochi beginning on February 6.
According to NBS Sports, Russia spent roughly $50 billion in preparation for the international event.
However, in response to what many perceived as Russia’s recently passed anti-gay legislation, the threat of international boycotts arose.
Vladimir Putin: Biography, Russian President, Ex-Wife, Facts Retrieved 31 August Petersburg, thanks to intelligence provided by the CIA. JD Vance. AP News.In October , Putin tried to allay some of these concerns, saying in an interview broadcast on Russian television that, “We will do everything to make sure that athletes, fans and guests feel comfortable at the Olympic Games regardless of their ethnicity, race or sexual orientation.”
In terms of security for the event, Putin implemented new measures aimed at cracking down on Muslim extremists, and in November reports surfaced that saliva samples had been collected from some Muslim women in the North Caucasus region.
The samples were ostensibly to be used to gather DNA profiles, in an effort to combat female suicide bombers known as “black widows.”
Invasion into Crimea
Shortly after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics, amidst widespread political unrest in Ukraine, which resulted in the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych, Putin sent Russian troops into Crimea, a peninsula in the country’s northeast coast of the Black Sea.
The peninsula had been part of Russia until Nikita Khrushchev, former Premier of the Soviet Union, gave it to Ukraine in
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Yuriy Sergeyev, claimed that approximately 16, troops invaded the territory, and Russia’s actions caught the attention of several European countries and the United States, who refused to accept the legitimacy of a referendum in which the majority of the Crimean population voted to secede from Ukraine and reunite with Russia.
Putin defended his actions, insisting that the troops sent into Ukraine were only meant to enhance Russia’s military defenses within the country—referring to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has its headquarters in Crimea. He also vehemently denied accusations by other nations, particularly the United States, that Russia intended to engage Ukraine in war.
He went on to claim that although he was granted permission from Russia's upper house of Parliament to use force in Ukraine, he found it unnecessary.
Putin also wrote off any speculation that there would be a further incursion into Ukrainian territory, saying, “Such a measure would certainly be the very last resort.”
The following day, it was announced that Putin had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Syrian Airstrikes
In September , Russia surprised the world by announcing it would begin strategic airstrikes in Syria.
Despite government officials’ assertions that the military actions were intended to target the extremist Islamic State, which made significant advances in the region due to the power vacuum created by Syria's ongoing civil war, Russia's true motives were called into question, with many international analysts and government officials claiming that the airstrikes were in fact aimed at the rebel forces attempting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's historically repressive regime.
In late October , Putin was personally involved in another alarming form of aerial warfare when he oversaw a late-night military drill that resulted in the launch of four ballistic missiles across the country. The drill came during a period of escalating tensions in the region, with Russian neighbor North Korea also drawing attention for its missile tests and threats to engage the U.S.
in destructive conflict.
In December , Putin announced he was ordering Russian forces to begin withdrawing from Syria, saying the country’s two-year campaign to destroy ISIS was complete, though he left open the possibility of returning if terrorist violence resumed in the area.
Despite the declaration, Pentagon spokesman Robert Manning was hesitant to endorse that view of events, saying, “Russian comments about removal of their forces do not often correspond with actual troop reductions.”
U.S. Election Hacks
Months prior to the U.S. presidential election, multiple U.S.
intelligence agencies unilaterally agreed that Russian intelligence was behind the email hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and John Podesta, who had, at the time, been chairman of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
In December unnamed senior CIA officials further concluded “with a high level of confidence” that Putin was personally involved in intervening in the U.S.
presidential election, according to a report by USA Today. The officials further went on to assert that the hacked DNC and Podesta emails that were given to WikiLeaks just before U.S. Election Day were designed to undermine Clinton’s campaign in favor of her Republican opponent, Donald Trump. Soon after, the FBI and National Intelligence Agency publicly supported the CIA’s assessments.
Putin denied any such attempts to disrupt the U.S.
election, and despite the assessments of his intelligence agencies, President Trump generally seemed to favor the word of his Russian counterpart. Underscoring their attempts to thaw public relations, the Kremlin in late revealed that a terror attack had been thwarted in St. Petersburg, thanks to intelligence provided by the CIA.
Around that time, Putin reported at his annual end-of-year press conference that he would seek a new six-year term as president in early as an independent candidate, signaling he was ending his longtime association with the United Russia party.
Shortly before the first formal summit between Presidents Putin and Trump in July , the U.S.
Department of Justice announced the indictments of 12 Russian operatives on charges relating to interference in the U.S. presidential election. Regardless, Trump suggested he was satisfied with his counterpart’s “strong and powerful" denial in a joint news conference and praised Putin’s offer to submit the 12 indicted agents to questioning with American witnesses present.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, Putin seemingly defended the hacking of the DNC server by suggesting that no false information was planted in the process.
He also rejected the idea that he had compromising information about Trump, saying that the businessman “was of no interest for us” before announcing his presidential campaign, and notably refused to touch a copy of the indictments offered to him by Wallace.
Fourth Presidential Term
In March , toward the end of his third term, Putin boasted of new weaponry that would render NATO defenses “completely worthless,” including a low-flying nuclear-capable cruise missile with “unlimited” range and another one capable of traveling at hypersonic speed.
His demonstration included video animation of attacks on the United States.
Not long afterward, a two-hour documentary, titled Putin, was posted to several social media pages and a pro-Kremlin YouTube account.
V putin wife Archived from the original on 11 February He has maintained an interest in sports during his time as a politician. On August 9, , Yeltsin appointed him as acting prime minister. In response to the illegal invasion, western countries imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia, which led to a sharp drop in the Ruble and Russian stock market.Designed to showcase the president in a strong yet humane light, the doc featured Putin sharing the story of how he ordered a hijacked plane shot down to head off a bomb scare at the Sochi Olympics, as well as recollections of his grandfather's days as a cook for Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.
On March 18, , the fourth anniversary of the country’s seizure of Crimea, Russian citizens overwhelmingly elected Putin to a fourth presidential term, with 67 percent of the electorate turning out to award him more than 76 percent of the vote.
The divided opposition stood little chance against the popular leader, his closest competitor notching around 13 percent of the vote.
Learn About Previous Russian Leaders
Little was expected to change regarding Putin’s strategies for rebuilding the country as a global power, though the start of his final term set off questions about his successor, and whether he would affect constitutional change in an attempt to remain in office indefinitely.
On July 16, , Putin met with President Trump in Helsinki, Finland, for the first formal talks between the two leaders.
According to Russia, topics of the meeting included the ongoing war in Syria and “the removal of the concerns” about accusations of Russian attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election.
The following April, Putin met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for the first time. The two leaders discussed the issue of the North Korean laborers in Russia, while Putin also offered support of his counterpart’s denuclearization negotiations with the U.S., saying Kim would need “security guarantees” in exchange for abandoning his nuclear program.
The topic of whether Putin aimed to extend his hold on power resurfaced following his state-of-the-nation speech in January , which included proposals for constitutional amendments that included transferring the power to select the prime minister and cabinet from the president to the Parliament.
The entire cabinet, including Medvedev, promptly resigned, leading to the selection of Mikhail V. Mishustin as the new prime minister.
Invasion of Ukraine
Despite Putin’s earlier remarks of further incursion into Ukraine being a last resort, in the spring of , Russian military forces began forming near the borders of the neighboring country for what the Kremlin claimed were training exercises.
According to Reuters, more than , troops had deployed by November.
On December 17, Russia released a list of security demands that included NATO pulling back forces and weaponry from its eastern flank and ceasing further expansion, including the possible addition of Ukraine into the alliance. If the demands were not met, a “military response” was promised.
Then on February 24, , Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with missile and rocket strikes on Ukrainian cities and military installations. In a televised address, Putin—claiming that Russian speakers in Ukraine faced genocide—referred to the invasion as a “special military operation,” designed to “achieve the demilitarization and denazification" of the country.
In the early hours, Russian forces took Chernobyl, site of the infamous nuclear disaster, but were held back from the capital city of Kyiv.
As the conflict dragged on with Western allies supporting Ukraine, Putin announced the “special mobilization” of more than , reserve troops in September
Ukrainian troops launched a counteroffensive in June and, as of December, the conflict is still ongoing.
The U.S. estimated that August that around , Russian and Ukrainian soldiers had been wounded or killed.
Seeking Fifth Presidential Term
Vladimir Putin speaks in Moscow in September
In December , Putin announced that he would seek a fifth term as president of Russia in the country's upcoming elections in March With a victory, he would be able to remain in power until at least and potentially run for another subsequent six-year term.
Putin is not expected to face any serious challengers and remains popular domestically.
According to CNBC, a survey by Russian news agency Tass found that more than 78 percent of Russians trust Putin, and more than 75 percent approve of his activities.
Personal Life
In , Putin met his future wife, Lyudmila, who was working as a flight attendant at the time.
Vladimir v putin biography man On December 17, Russia released a list of security demands that included NATO pulling back forces and weaponry from its eastern flank and ceasing further expansion, including the possible addition of Ukraine into the alliance. Donald Trump. Putin worked in Dresden , which was part of the former East Germany. In response to the illegal invasion, western countries imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia, which led to a sharp drop in the Ruble and Russian stock market.The couple married in and had two daughters: Maria, born in , and Yekaterina, born in In early June , after nearly 30 years of marriage, Russia’s first couple announced that they were getting a divorce, providing little explanation for the decision, but assuring that they came to it mutually and amicably.
“There are people who just cannot put up with it,” Putin stated.
“Lyudmila Alexandrovna has stood watch for eight, almost nine years.” Providing more context to the decision, Lyudmila added, “Our marriage is over because we hardly ever see each other. Vladimir Vladimirovich is immersed in his work, our children have grown and are living their own lives.”
An Orthodox Christian, Putin is said to attend church services on important dates and holidays on a regular basis and has had a long history of encouraging the construction and restoration of thousands of churches in the region.
He generally aims to unify all faiths under the government’s authority and legally requires religious organizations to register with local officials for approval.
Quotes
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