Here’s the man who made the world shudder, with his attack on Ukraine. Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin is one of the strongest leaders in the world.
He was born in Leningrad, the city now named as St. Petersburg. After graduating in law in 1975, he joined the KGB, the dreaded secret service of the Soviet Union. He was further trained at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute in Moscow, and then worked in East Germany under the pretence of being a translator. He left the KGB following the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, which he did not agree with.
Putin then sought a career in politics and was quite successful in it. He reached the highest position in Russia in 2000. Among all the current presidents in Europe, Putin is the second longest serving – behind only Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. In fact, the Russian constitution allowed a person to serve as president only for two terms. To get around this problem, a shrewd Putin chose to be the prime minister in 2008, swapping places with the then prime minister Dimitri Medvedev. Putin was re-elected as president in 2018, for the fourth time. In April 2021, he changed the constitution so as to allow him to be elected as president for two more terms. This would enable him to remain as president until 2036.
Putin’s rule of Russia is characterized by a shift to authoritarianism. His government is also accused of gross human rights abuses. Most recently, the attack on Ukraine has added to his image as a ruthless ruler.
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