Vladimir Putin comes to power

Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, became acting president of Russia on December 31, 1999, when Boris Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly and named him successor. Putin, who had been prime minister since August 1999, won the presidential election on March 26, 2000, with about 53 percent of the vote, and was inaugurated on May 7. He served two terms, then as prime minister from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev, then again as president from 2012. In 2020 constitutional amendments reset his term count, which allows him to remain until 2036.¹²

Russia in the 1990s had suffered the loss of the Soviet system, a collapse in output, the 1998 default and the war in Chechnya. Yeltsin's circle looked for a loyal successor, and the war in Chechnya from 1999, which Putin led, made him popular. His rule coincided with a boom in oil and gas prices that raised living standards for years, which added to his support.¹

Putin's government rebuilt the power of the state at the top. It brought national television under state-friendly control, ended elections for regional governors in 2004, arrested the oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 and put pressure on independent media and opposition groups. Supporters see a return to order and national pride after the chaos of the 1990s, and critics see a drift to authoritarian rule. In foreign policy Russia moved from cooperation with the West after 2001 to rivalry, with the war with Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022.¹