It has been more than 30 years since the partition of the USSR. Then Vladimir Putin was 39 years old. He was not happy with the disintegration of Russia. He once told the media that much of the 1,000-year-old heritage had been lost by the partition of Russia. After the attack on Ukraine on Thursday, the discussion of Putin’s personality has started once again. Is he imperialist, does he want to make Russia the world’s biggest power again, or is the attack on Ukraine just part of his ploy to stay in power in Russia? Let us try to know the answers to these questions.
In 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin recognized the potential hidden in Putin. They sensed that this man was the right person to lead Russia in the 21st century. Then Putin was appointed Yeltsin’s deputy chief of staff. The next year he was made the chief of the FSB. Soon after, Yeltsin appointed Putin as his prime minister. After Yeltsin’s abrupt resignation in 1999 due to ill health, Putin became the acting President of Russia.
After this Putin began to tighten his grip on power. He decided to reach the top of power through elections. In the election held in March 2000, he got 53 percent of the vote. Since then he continues to hold power in Russia. He is the longest-serving person in power in Russia after the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. After being re-elected in 2018 for a six-year term, he cleared the way for himself to remain in power until 2036 by amending the constitution. However, there was much controversy regarding this amendment.
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Putin was born in a working family in Leningrad in 1952. Now Leningrad is called St. Pittsburgh. Since childhood, his behavior was aggressive. He often gets into fights with the neighborhood kids. This aggressive behavior attracted him to Judo. This game played a big role in maintaining his aggression. He went on to win several judo events one after the other. Then, he never looked back.
It is said that even before completing his schooling, he had worked for the Civil Intelligence. After earning his law degree in 1975, he started working in the Soviet Secret Police Force (KGB). He was appointed as a translator in East Germany. It is said that his work there was limited to collecting press clippings only. He returned to Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since then, he continued to strengthen his position in the government machinery. One after the other, he kept climbing the ladder of power. There is no one to challenge him in Russia today. Those who tried to raise their voice against him were thrown out of the way.
Experts say that if we look at Putin’s journey in power since 2000, it is clear that his stance has been expansionist. In March 2016, he annexed Ukraine from Crimea by military intervention. In March 2014, government rebels were bombed in Syria. Now by attacking Ukraine, they have told that it is impossible to stop them. That’s why he calls himself ‘Man of Mission’. His relations with Western countries including America have never been good. He never even cared about it. Perhaps he knows that this is the right time to assert his power in the current geopolitical environment.