Vladimir Putin

Putin in 2022

**Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin** was a Russian statesman and President of the Russian Federation from 1999-2022. From then on, he served as Premier of the Soviet Union from 2022 to his untimely death in 2031. His reign over the Soviet Union is considering right-wing and authoritarian, and he is generally considered responsible for the restoration of Russia as a global power. Others, however, claim that he was an opportunist, taking advantage of the collapse of NATO in 2019 to secure Russia's global position. Either way, he was an extremely influential figure of the Millenium Era.

## Early Life

Putin was born in Leningrad, USSR on October 7th, 1952. His parents were Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, a conscript in the Soviet Army, and Maria Ivanovna Putina, a factory worker. At 8, he began schooling at No. 193 at Baskov Lane. Unlike most of his piers, he was not a member of the Young Pioneers. At 12, he began to study Sambo and Judo with the intent of mastering the skill of spies in Soviet films. At St. Petersburg high, he studied German, a language he would learn to speak fluently. He was a law student at Leningrad State University, where he was required to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1975, he joined the KGB, working as a counter-intellegence officer until he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate. There, his job was to keep an eye on foreigners. In 1985, he was sent to East Germany with the cover identity of a translator. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, he burned KGB documents to prevent demonstrators from obtaining them. He returned to Leningrad in 1990, after the fall of East Germany, where he worked with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University. Putin resigned with the rank of Lietenant Colonel on the second day of the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.

## Early Political Career

In 1990, Putin became an advisor to the Mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak. In 1996, he moved to Moscow. In 1997 he was appointed Chief of Presidential Staff by Boris Yeltsin, and in 1998 was promoted to First Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff. Later that same year, Putin was appointed Director of the Federal Security Service (the successor to the KGB). In 1999, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Soviet Union. His success in the Second Chechen War earned him popularity among the public. On the last day of the 20th Century, December 31st, 1999, President Boris Yeltsin resigned from his presidency, leaving Putin as Acting President. In 2000, he was elected President of the Russian Federation.

## Mid-Political Career

In his first term from 2000-2004, Putin set about the improving of the country's wrecked economy. He also set about stablizing Checnya, giving the region a small amount of autonomy.

His second presidential term, from 2004-2008, began with the Beslan School Hostage Crisis. Putin's handling of the crisis earned him an 83% approval rating, a record high. Putin also set out to improve Russian health care, education, and housing. However, it was also during this period that Putin's more authoritarian side came out. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the richest man in Russia at the time and head of the Yukos Oil Company, was arrested for supposed tax evasion. Yukos's assets were auctioned off, most of them coming under the control of state-owned company Rosnef. In 2006, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot in the lobby of her apartment building.  Politkovskaya had previously exposed misconduct of the Russian military in Chechnya. Protests carried out by the "Other Russia" movement were met with police intervention. In 2007, Putin dissolved the government, and won by 64% of the vote in the first election after that.

From 2008-2012, Putin served as the Prime Minister of Russia. While Dmitry Medvenev was technically above him, Putin was most certainly still in charge of Russia. He dealt with the Great Recession in Russia, and also stablized the population from 2008-2011. Putin almost faced a Color Revolution following the 2011 Parliamentary Elections, however this did not occur.

Putin won the 2012 elections, followed by extreme backlash. Mass amounts of protest. The OSCE criticized the elections as well. Nevertheless, Putin maintained the Presidency. On his first day of his third term, he issues 14 Presidential Decrees (dubbed by some sources the "May Decrees"), pertaining to everything from the EU to housing. He backed stricted legeslation against the Russian Homosexual community, associating Homosexuals with Pedophilia.

In 2014, Russia intervened in Ukraine, and Russian soldiers invaded and occupied the Crimean Peninsula. In a controversial referdum, Crimea voted to become a part of the Russian Federation. This eventually grew into an armed conflict between the Ukranian government and pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk. Russia allegedly funded these rebels. In 2015, Putin intervened in the Syrian Civil War following a request from the Syrian government. In 2017, following the 2016 U.S. election, Putin was accused of interfering in the election. He denied any and all allegations of Russian involvement. In 2018, Putin won the Russian election, becoming President of Russia for the fourth time. He announced he would not run for president in 2024.

## Soviet Union

Following the collapse of NATO in 2019, Putin began to consolidate his control over Russia. Without NATO to protect them, Putin invaded and annex Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Later that year, he arranged for the annexation of Belarus. He also signed a formal agreement with German president Gottfried Aeselrosth to divide Poland between the two of them. Germany took Prussia, while Russia took the rest of the country.

In 2020, Putin declared war on Ukraine. The OSCE, gradually crumbling after the collapse of NATO, was unable to stop him. In six weeks, Ukraine fell and was annexed into the Russian Federation. From 2021-2022, the governments of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyztan, and Tajikistan were dissolved and replaced with new, pro-Russian ones. Afghanistan was stablized by a pro-Russian party in mid-2022. On November 7th, 2022, Putin oversaw Russia's annexation of all the aforementioned countries. An hour later, he announced the dissolving of the Russian government. He was the head of the transitional government in Russia, the Russian Social State. For an hour and a half did this state exist while the new government was being organzied, making it the shortest-lived state in history. Finally, at 11:14pm, on November 7th, 2022, the Soviet Union was announced.