Vladimir Putin’s Biography Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia since 2012, was born on October 7, 1952. Putin was brought up in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), U.S.S.R. The boy was interested in political sciences and international relations. In 1975, Putin received the degree in law in Leningrad State University. During the period of 1975-1985, Putin served as a foreign intelligence officer for the KGB (Committee for State Security) (“Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin”). In 1985, Putin was appointed to work for KGB in Dresden, East Germany. In 1990, Putin returned to Russia as the lieutenant colonel and started to work with Anatoly Sobchak’s, one of the Perestroika leaders, in St. Petersburg (Sakwa 8-54). The career of Putin begins to develop intensively in 1996 when he moved to Moscow and joins the administrations of the Kremlin’s main leaders. In 1998, Putin is appointed by President Boris Yeltsin as the director of the Federal Security Service. President Yeltsin supported the career of Putin, and Putin was appointed to become the Prime Minister in 1999, and then in December of 1999, Putin was named as the President of Russia because of Yeltsin’s resignation. In 2000, Putin was elected as the President of Russia and served as the country’s leader till 2008 (Sakwa 8-54). During this period, Putin focused on reconstructing the weak Russia’s economy and developing international relations. In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was elected as the President, and Putin became the Prime Minister. He also accepted the position of the Chairman of the United Russia Party. In 2012, Putin was elected as the Russian President again, when Dmitry Medvedev became the Prime Minister (Hale and Colton 24). Vladimir Putin’s Accomplishments The accomplishments of Putin as the main political leader in Russia since 2000 can be classified into three categories. The first category includes Putin’s achievements in relation to the Russian domestic economy. During the period of 2000-2014, Russia demonstrates the stable economic growth. Putin’s successes in economy are in strengthening the industrial sector, developing the oil and gas industry, and making Russia the energy superpower (Radyuhin 12-14). Putin focused on increasing the oil export revenues. Furthermore, Putin’s policies contributed to the growth of the Russian population’s incomes (Radyuhin 14). The second category includes Putin’s achievements in the sphere of fighting terrorism in relation to the Chechen separatists. Although Russian and United States’ visions of the war on terror differ significantly, Putin contributed to overcoming terrorism at the global arena while developing campaigns against the Chechen separatists in 2000-2002 in order to protect the Russian civil population (Piet and Kanet 28-34). The third category includes Putin’s accomplishments regarding the state’s international relations. Since 1991, Russia remained to be the post-U.S.S.R. country characterized by the problematic relations with the international community. The situation began to change in 2000, when Putin started to develop effective economic and political relations with the foreign countries. To demonstrate the new approach to the state’s foreign policy, Putin visited Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, in 2005, and he was the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel (“Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin”). However, the oppositio