Vladimir Putin (born October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, Russia, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]), a Russian intelligence officer and politician who served as Russia’s president (1999-2008 and 2012-) and prime minister (1999 and 2008-12).
Who is Vladimir Putin?
Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), the youngest of three children born to Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911-1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (Shelomova; 1911-1998). Spiridon Putin (1879-1965), his grandpa, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.
Putin’s birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers: Albert, who died in infancy in the 1930s, and Viktor, who died of diphtheria and malnutrition in 1942 during Nazi Germany’s Siege of Leningrad during World War II.
Putin’s mother was a factory worker, while his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy in the early 1930s, serving in the submarine fleet. During the early stages of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, his father served in the NKVD’s demolition battalion. He was later transferred to the regular army and badly wounded in 1942. Putin’s maternal grandmother was assassinated by German occupants of the Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles vanished on the Eastern Front during WWII.
What is Vladimir Putin’s Educational Background?
Putin began his education at School No. 193 on Baskov Lane, near his house, on September 1, 1960. He was one of only a few students in his class of roughly 45 who had not yet joined the Young Pioneer organization. He began practicing sambo and judo at the age of 12. In his spare time, he enjoyed reading Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin. Putin attended Saint Petersburg High School 281 and speaks German and English as second languages.
Putin earned a law degree from Leningrad State University named after Andrei Zhdanov (now Saint Petersburg State University) in 1975. His dissertation topic was “The Most Favoured Nation Trading Principle in International Law.” While there, he was obliged to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which he did until it was dissolved in 1991.
Putin met Anatoly Sobchak, an assistant professor who taught corporate law[f], and went on to co-author the Russian constitution as well as French corruption schemes. Putin had an impact on Sobchak’s career in Saint Petersburg, and Sobchak had an impact on Putin’s career in Moscow.
In 1997, he obtained his Ph.D. in economics (Candidate of Economic Sciences) from Saint Petersburg Mining University for a thesis on mineral economy strategic planning.
What is Vladimir Putin’s Career Background?
Putin joined the KGB, the Soviet equivalent of the CIA, after studying law at Leningrad State University. In the mid-1980s, he was assigned to the East German city of Dresden, where he gathered “political intelligence,” in part by recruiting sources. During the fall of the Berlin Wall, Putin allegedly halted a mass of protestors from storming the local KGB headquarters with a dangerous bluff.
Putin returned to Leningrad in 1990, claiming to have resigned from the KGB the year before. The ensuing collapse of the Soviet Union severely upset him; he later referred to it as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the twentieth century. Around that time, he began his political career as an aide to Anatoly Sobchak, a former instructor who became his mentor and the mayor of St. Petersburg.
Sobchak lost his re-election bid in 1996 and eventually moved abroad amid corruption allegations. Nonetheless, Putin maintained his stratospheric climb, relocating to Moscow and gaining one Kremlin appointment after another (while simultaneously defending an allegedly plagiarised economics degree). By 1998, Putin had assumed command of the KGB’s primary successor organization and the following year, President Boris Yeltsin appointed him Prime Minister, the country’s second-highest office, raising him from obscurity to heir presumptive.
Putin committed to defend freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and property rights in his inaugural address as Russia’s president, as well as his dedication to democracy. Nonetheless, under his leadership, democratic backsliding occurred almost immediately. The Kremlin took over independent television networks and closed down other news outlets; eliminated gubernatorial and senatorial elections; limited the courts; and banned opposition political groups. Outside observers observed widespread voter irregularities during the elections. Putin’s system has been described as a “managed democracy.”
Because Russia’s constitution prohibited him from serving a third straight term, Putin resigned in 2008, and his longtime confidante Dmitry Medvedev took over as president. However, Putin retained the position of Prime Minister, leaving no ambiguity about who was in charge. When Medvedev’s term expired in 2012, the two posts were reversed, and Putin was re-elected president. He has been in charge ever since, signing legislation that allows him to stay in power until 2036.
Putin has routinely placed friends and former intelligence colleagues in crucial positions, several of whom have become extravagantly wealthy, and he has fostered a personality cult. Opponents have been labeled “scum” and “traitors” and treated cruelly. Some, like oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, have been imprisoned, while others have died. For example, on Putin’s birthday in 2006, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed, and the same year, Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated in England with radioactive polonium.
Recently, opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was barred from running for president, escaped an assassination attempt, and was imprisoned on politically fabricated charges. Another high-profile death happened in 2023 when Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash after leading a brief military rebellion against Russia’s authority.
What is Vladimir Putin’s net worth?
His assets are listed as an 800-square-foot apartment, a caravan, and three cars. However, some experts believe he may be the world’s wealthiest man, with assets worth up to $200 billion.
Who is Vladimir Putin married to?
Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva on July 28, 1983, and the couple lived in East Germany from 1985 to 1990. Mariya Putina, born on April 28, 1985, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), and Yekaterina Putina, born on August 31, 1986, in Dresden, East Germany (now Germany), are their two children.
According to a Proekt investigation published in November 2020, Putin has another daughter, Elizaveta, also known as Luiza Rozova, (born in March 2003), with Svetlana Krivonogikh. Putin divorced Lyudmila and was engaged to Olympic gold medalist Alina Kabaeva, a former rhythmic gymnast and Russian politician, according to the Moskovsky Korrespondent in April 2008. The story was refuted, and the newspaper was closed down shortly afterward.
Putin and Lyudmila continued to appear publicly as spouses, while the state of his relationship with Kabaeva became a source of conjecture.
Putin and Lyudmila announced their divorce on June 6, 2013; on April 1, 2014, the Kremlin acknowledged the divorce was completed. According to Putin, Kabaeva gave birth to a daughter in 2015; this allegation was rejected. Putin is said to have given Kabaeva twin sons in 2019. However, in 2022, Swiss media reported, citing the couple’s Swiss gynecologist, that Kabaeva gave birth to a son on both occasions.
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
Categories: News
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
