Vladimir Putin

Russian politician, taking the office of President on 3/26/2000, replacing Yeltsin who resigned the prior December 31st, ailing and being edged out of power. Putin, a virtually unknown security chief, had been appointed by Yeltsin as his seventh Prime Minister on 8/09/1999. Known to be a pragmatist, Putin has demonstrated that he is aware of the scale of the problems facing Russian society and the Russian economy and he seems to be serious about fighting corruption. At present, he is one of the most admired figures Russia has seen this decade, even his opponents singing his praises. Born to factory workers in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Putin grew up in a communal apartment shared by several families. His father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, was a factory foreman and died in August 1999; his mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina, died six months earlier. He was raised as an only child; his two brothers died young, one shortly after birth, the other of diphtheria during World War II. Although it was officially prohibited by Communist law, Putin was baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith. In his youth he was called Volodya or Putka. He studied law at Leningrad University where one of his teachers was Anatoli Sobchak, an early reformer. After graduating from University in 1975 with a degree in civil law, Putin spend 15 years as a KGB agent, based largely in East Germany. While spending the 1980’s in Berlin, intelligence observers believe he slipped into West Germany to learn trade secrets of such companies as U.S. computer giant IBM. In 1990 he returned to Leningrad State University as an assistant to the rector. At the same time he joined the administration of then-mayor of Leningrad-St. Petersburg, Sobchak. Rising to become the first deputy mayor, he learned to deal with Western businessmen and investors. What can be gleamed from Putin's bare biography suggests that he is intelligent and cunning, trusted enough by peers to be handed some of the most sensitive assignments. He entered politics as an appointed deputy and soon gained clout in city hall. An excellent psychologist, he is skilled in manipulation. After Sobchak's defeat in 1996, Putin was brought to Moscow by Anatoli Chubais to join the presidential administration. Recruited by the Kremlin, he quickly rose to become head of the FSB, (Federal Security Bureau) a successor to the KGB. The poker-faced ex-KGB spy once tried to westernize a crumbling Soviet Union but has since galvanized a new Russia and is vowing to annihilate the rebels of Chechnya. He swore to stop terrorists shortly after Russia launched its Chechen war, September 1999. Such talk boosted Putin's career. At present, he is the star of a well orchestrated media public relations campaign, one which has put his presidential rating at an unheralded 46 percent. He zealously guards his privacy, avoiding any publicity to glare on his wife, Lyudmila and their daughters Katya, 14, and Maria, 13. His wife was born on 1/06/1958 in Kaliningrad, the former Koenigsberg, East Prussia, Germany (now Poland,) no time known. She is a graduate of the philological department of the Leningrad State University. She formerly worked as a stewardess in Kaliningrad and then as a schoolteacher, speaking German, Spanish and French. The entire family loves animals; they own a white poodle called Tosca. Mr. Putin has good command of English and German and he is fond of sports, especially wrestling. He has been going in for samba (a Russian style of self-defense) and judo since the age of 11. He won the samba championships of St Petersburg many times and became Master of Sports first in samba and later in judo. Putin doesn't smoke and he is not an excessive drinker. He is not known as a charismatic speaker though he is a tough and resourceful man. Putin is said to be most popular among young people, Muscovites and educated people. His reputation is of a good chairman and organizer. In the first year of his presidency, Putin has successfully taken over the media, silencing any voice other than that of his Party policy. Some journalist say that democracy has been silenced in Russia and others whisper that it is becoming a bureaucratic police state, while others applaud Putin's nationalism. Link to Wikipedia biography Link to Astrodienst discussion forum