Life and Career
Putin was born in Leningrad (Leningrad: A city in the European part of Russia; 2nd largest Russian city; located at the head of the Gulf of Finland; former capital of Russia) (now Saint Petersburg (Saint Petersburg: A city in western Florida on Tampa Bay; a popular winter resort) ). His biography, translated into English under the title First Person and based on interviews conducted with Putin in 2000, speaks of humble beginnings, including early years in a rat-infested tenement (tenement: A rundown apartment house barely meeting minimal standards) in a communal apartment.
In the same book, Putin notes that his paternal grandfather, a chef by profession, was brought to the Moscow suburbs to serve as a cook at one of Stalin's dacha (dacha: Russian country house) s. His mother was a factory worker and his father was conscripted into the navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. (His father subsequently served with the land forces during the Second World War). Two older brothers were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months of birth; the second succumbed to diptheria during the siege of Leningrad (siege of Leningrad: the siege of leningrad (today saint petersburg), during world war ii, lasted from...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) .
Putin graduated from the International Department of the Law Faculty of the Leningrad State University (Leningrad State University: saint petersburg state university (-...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) in 1975 and was recruited into the KGB (KGB: Formerly the predominant security police organization of Soviet Russia) . In First Person, Putin described to journalists his early duties in the KGB, which included suppressing dissident activities in Leningrad.
From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Putin in East Germany (East Germany: A republic in north central Europe on the Baltic; established by the Soviet Union in 1954; reunified with West Germany in 1990) ), in what he himself acknowledges was a minor position. Following the collapse of the East German (East German: A native or inhabitant of the former republic of East Germany) regime, Putin was recalled to the USSR and returned to Leningrad, where in June 1990 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to the Vice-Rector. In June 1991 he was appointed head of the International Committee of the Saint Petersburg (Saint Petersburg: A city in western Florida on Tampa Bay; a popular winter resort) Mayor's office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments.
Putin formally resigned from the state security services on August 20, 1991, during the abortive putsch (putsch: A sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force) against the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (Mikhail Gorbachev: Soviet statesman whose foreign policy brought an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms (born in 1931)) . In 1994 he became First Deputy Chairman of the city of Saint Petersburg, a position he retained until he was called to Moscow (Moscow: A city of central European Russia; formerly capital of both the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia; since 1991 the capital of the Russian Federation) , in August 1996, to serve in a variety of senior positions in Yeltsin's second Administration. He was head of the FSB (FSB: A federally chartered savings bank) (one of the successor agencies to the KGB) from July 1998 to August 1999, and also served as Secretary of the Security Council March-August 1999.
Prime Minister and first term as President
Putin was appointed Chairman (Chairman: The officer who presides at the meetings of an organization) (predsedatel', or prime minister) of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin (Boris Yeltsin: more facts about this subject) in August 1999, making him Russia's fifth prime minister in less than eighteen months. On his appointment, few expected Putin, a virtual unknown, to last any longer than his predecessors. Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (Yuri Luzhkov: yuri mikhailovich luzhkov ( ...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) and former Chairman of the Russian Government Yevgeniy Primakov (Yevgeniy Primakov: more facts about this subject) , were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor. Nevertheless, Putin's law-and-order image and a fiercely nationalist public relations campaign combined to help him overtake all rivals by late September 1999. While not formally associated with any party, Putin was supported by the newly formed Edinstvo (unity) faction, which won the largest percentage of the popular vote in the December 1999 Duma (Duma: a duma ( in russian) is any of various representative...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) elections. Putin was reappointed as Chairman of the Government, and seemed ideally positioned to win the presidency in elections due the following summer. His rise to the highest office ended up being even more rapid: on December 31, 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and appointed Putin the second (acting (acting: The performance of a part or role in a drama) ) President of the Russian Federation. Presidential elections were held on March 26, 2000, which Putin won in the first round.
Upon his election, Putin undertook measures to restore the primacy of the Kremlin in Russia's political life. Under Yeltsin, Russia's 89 sub-federal political territories (sub-federal political territories: more facts about this subject) (republics, oblasts, krai, and Moscow and St Petersburg) has been granted unprecedented autonomy. While this move had been intended to help Yeltsin break the hold of the old Communist party over Russia in the early 1990s, it also led to a highly irregular federalism and to the growth of separatist movements, most notably in Chechnya. One of Putin's first acts, therefore, was to attempt to restore what he referred to as the "power vertical" -- i.e. a return to the traditional top-down federal system. As a first step, Putin announced the appointment of seven presidential "plenipotentiary representatives" who were explicitly charged with coordinating federal activity in newly-defined super-regions. While billed as a seminal break with Yeltsin-era federalism, for a variety of reasons the plenipotentiary system never really took hold. Of more lasting significance, Putin also instituted a major reform of Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council. Putin and his team also entered into head-on confrontations with several uncooperative governors accused of corruption, though with only mixed success.
Putin faced his first acute crisis in August 2000, when the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank off the Kola peninsula, killing all of the over 120 sailors on board.
Putin has been unenthusiastic about erasing Russia's Soviet (Soviet: An elected governmental council in a Communist country (especially one that is a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)) past from memory. He has stated his belief that whatever the massive crimes of the Communist (Communist: A socialist who advocates communism) regime, it was nevertheless an important part of Russian history (Russian history: more facts about this subject) and has an important influence on the creation of modern Russian society. As a result, some Soviet-era symbols have been allowed to return to Russia, such as the trademark red military flag, the "Soviet Star" crest, and the Soviet national anthem (Soviet national anthem: more facts about this subject) (although with revised lyrics) -- all of which have resonated well with the majority of Russia's population.
A pro-Putin United Russia (United Russia: united russia (russian ...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) party won a landslide victory in the 2003 parliamentary elections (parliamentary elections: a parliamentary system, or parliamentarism, is distinguished by the executive branch...
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[follow hyperlink for more...]) , especially Russian national TV, had massively and unfairly campaigned for the governing party only.
Indeed, most Russian TV stations, newspapers, and other media are now controlled directly or indirectly by the Kremlin. Domestic and foreign critics accuse Putin of having orchestrated the trials of oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky (Boris Berezovsky: more facts about this subject) , Vladimir Gusinsky (Vladimir Gusinsky: more facts about this subject) , and later Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Mikhail Khodorkovsky: more facts about this subject) as part of an effort by his inner circle to gain control over the media and large sectors of the Russian economy.
It is said that there are two factions operating within Putin's Kremlin. One, the siloviki (siloviki: a silovik (, plural: siloviks...
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Another linked to the Family is former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov (Mikhail Kasyanov: more facts about this subject) . Defying Putin's direct instruction to avoid involvement in the matter, Kasyanov expressed great concern about the Khodorkovsky prosecution and criticised the decision to freeze the magnate's controlling stake in Yukos (Yukos: more facts about this subject) .
On 24 February 2004, less than a month prior to the elections, Putin dismissed Prime Minister Kasyanov and the entire Russian cabinet and appointed Viktor Khristenko (Viktor Khristenko: more facts about this subject) acting prime minister. On March 1, he appointed Mikhail Fradkov (Mikhail Fradkov: more facts about this subject) to the position.
Second term as President
On March 14, 2004, Putin won re-election to the presidency for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote. Again, there was massive and one-sided campaigning for Putin by Russian television channels, most of which are state owned and controlled. Nevertheless, the election campaign and the actual balloting were both declared "free and fair" by an international observation mission run by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Although Russian Presidents are not limited in the number of terms they can serve, they cannot serve for more than two successive terms. So Putin is not permitted under the Constitution of Russian Federation (Constitution of Russian Federation: more facts about this subject) to run for a third successive term in 2008 (following the 2003 parliamentary elections he gained a sufficient majority to change the Constitution, but so far has not announced any intention to do so.)
On September 13, 2004, following the Beslan school hostage crisis (Beslan school hostage crisis: the beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to by the media as the beslan school siege)...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) , and nearly-concurrent terrorist (terrorist: A radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities) attacks in Moscow, Putin launched an initiative to replace the election of regional governors with a system whereby they would be proposed by the President and approved or disapproved by regional legislatures (legislatures: Persons who make or amend or repeal laws) . Opponents of this measure, including Mikhail Gorbachev (Mikhail Gorbachev: Soviet statesman whose foreign policy brought an end to the Cold War and whose domestic policy introduced major reforms (born in 1931)) , Boris Yeltsin (Boris Yeltsin: more facts about this subject) , and Colin Powell (Colin Powell: United States general who was the first Black to serve as Chief of Staff; later served as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush (born 1937)) , criticised it as a step away from democracy in Russia and a return to the centrally run political apparatus of the Soviet era. Also on that day, Putin publicly backed a plan by the Central Elections Commission for the new proportional, and not mixed system, as before. In the previous system half of the 450 deputies in the Duma were elected based on proportional representation, while the other half of deputies are elected individually in single-member districts. This measure is also seen as an attempt by the President at consolidating power.
On April 25, 2005, Putin caused some controversy when, in a nationally televised speech before the Duma, he referred to the collapse of the Soviet Union (collapse of the Soviet Union: more facts about this subject) as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." This remark was poorly received in the West and in some neighbouring states; Putin subsequently repeated earlier protestations that he was not praising the former Soviet Union but rather highlighting in an altogether objective fashion the dramatic impact the collapse of the USSR had had on the world.
Chechnya
Putin's rise to public office coincided with an aggressive resurgence of the war in Chechnya (Chechnya: An autonomous republic in southwestern Russia in the northern Caucasus Mountains bordering on Georgia; declared independence from the USSR in 1991 but Russian troops invaded and continue to prosecute a relentless military campaign in the largely Muslim re) in August 1999. Both in Russia and abroad, Putin's public image was forged by his tough handling of the extreme challenge posed by Chechen extremists and their foreign supporters. During the bitter autumn 1999 campaign for the Duma, pro-Kremlin politicians and media accused Putin's chief rivals of being soft on terrorism, and ratcheted up accusations that the Chechens' military campaign was being supported and supplied by Western intelligence agencies bent on humiliating and weakening Russia. On assuming the role of acting President on December 31, 1999, Putin proceeded on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in the North Caucasus; carefully orchestrated public relations coverage showed him presenting hunting knives to soldiers. Throughout the winter of 2000, Putin's government regularly claimed that victory was at hand. In recent years, Putin has distanced himself from the management of the continuing conflict.
Foreign policy
While President Putin is criticized as an autocrat (autocrat: A cruel and oppressive dictator) by some of his Western counterparts, his relationships with US President George W. Bush (George W. Bush: 43rd President of the United States; son of George Herbert Walker Bush (born in 1946)) , German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Silvio Berlusconi: |+ silvio berlusconi...
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During his time in office, Putin has attempted to strengthen relations with other members of the CIS (CIS: An alliance made up of states that had been Soviet Socialist Republics in the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution in Dec 1991) . The "near abroad" zone of traditional Russian influence has again become a foreign policy priority under Putin, as the EU (EU: An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members) and NATO (NATO: An international organization created in 1949 by the North Atlantic Treaty for purposes of collective security) have grown to encompass much of Central Europe (Central Europe: central europe is the region of europe between eastern europe and western europe...
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During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, Putin twice visited Ukraine before the election to show his support for Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych (Viktor Yanukovych: more facts about this subject) . Yanukovych's alleged victory was rejected as fraudulent soon after. Putin's direct support for Yanukovych was criticized by some commentators as unwarranted interference in the affairs of post-Soviet Ukraine.
Putin surprised many Russian nationalists and even his own defence minister when, in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States, he agreed to the establishment of coalition military bases in Central Asia before and during the US-led attack on the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Russian nationalists objected to the establishment of any US military presence on the territory of the former Soviet Union, and had expected Putin to keep the US out of the Central Asian republics, or at the very least extract a commitment from Washington to withdraw from these bases as soon as the immediate military purpose had passed.
During the Iraq crisis of 2003 (Iraq crisis of 2003: more facts about this subject) , Putin opposed Washington's move to invade Iraq (Iraq: A republic in the Middle East in western Asia; the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia was in the area now known as Iraq; modern government is involved in state-sponsored terrorism) without the benefit of a United Nations Security Council resolution explicitly authorising the use of military force. After the official end of the war was announced, American president George W. Bush (George W. Bush: 43rd President of the United States; son of George Herbert Walker Bush (born in 1946)) asked the United Nations to lift sanctions on Iraq (Iraq: A republic in the Middle East in western Asia; the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia was in the area now known as Iraq; modern government is involved in state-sponsored terrorism) . Putin supported lifting of the sanctions in due course, arguing that the UN (UN: An organization of independent states formed in 1945 to promote international peace and security) commission first be given a chance to complete its work on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Family and personal life
Putin is married to Liudmila Putina (Liudmila Putina: liudmila putina (born january 6, 1957, kaliningrad) is the wife of russian...
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参考资料：http://www.putin2004.ru/english/authorized