Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - Celebrity Genealogy Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Leningrad USSR, Saint Petersburgh, Russian Federation Immediate Family: Oct 7 1952 - Saint-Pétersbourg RUSSIE Parents: Vladimir Spiridonovitch Poutine, Maria Ivanovna Poutine (née Chelomova) Siblings: Lioudmila Alexandrovna Poutine (née Shkrebneva) Children: Oct 7 1952 - Oblast de Léningrad, Russie Parents: Vladimir Spiridonovitch Poutine, Maria Poutine (née Ivanovna) Siblings: Oct 7 1952 - Saint Petersburg Parents: Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova Siblings: Official Website , Blog Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician who is the current President of the Russian Federation, holding the office since 7 May 2012.

He was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, President from 2000 to 2008, and again Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012. During his second term as Prime Minister, he was the Chairman of the United Russia Party, the ruling party. Putin brought peace and progress to Russia, when he ended the crisis of 1990s and restored the territorial integrity of Russia and established a strong "power vertical". Putin often supports an outdoor, sporting, tough guy image in the media, demonstrating his physical capabilities and taking part in unusual or dangerous acts, such as extreme sports and interaction with wild animals. A judoka, samboist and karateka, several times Champion of Leningrad in judo and sambo in his youth, Putin has played a major role in development of sport in Russia, notably, helping the city of Sochi to win the bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics. I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue.

I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue. President George W. Bush re President Vladimir Putin. (16 June 2001) Stay tuned . . . BIOGRAPHY Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation), to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (1911–1998). His mother was a factory worker, and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Two elder brothers were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months of birth, while the second succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad.

His paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879–1965), was employed at Vladimir Lenin's dacha at Gorki as a chef, and after Lenin's death in 1924, he continued to work for Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. He would later work for Joseph Stalin when the Soviet leader visited one of his dachas in the Moscow region. Spiridon later was employed at a dacha belonging to the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, at which the young Putin would visit him. In the early 1980s Putin met and married his wife, Lyudmila, a former teacher of French and English. In 1984 he was selected to attend the prestigious Red Banner Institute of Intelligence, where he mastered German and also learned English in preparation for an international assignment, which he had coveted for some time. In 1985 the KGB sent him to Dresden, East Germany, where he lived undercover as Mr. Adamov, the director of the Soviet-German House of Friendship, a social and cultural club in Leipzig.

According to Wines, he spoke so fluently that he could easily mimic regional dialects. Putin appeared to genuinely enjoy socializing with Germans, unlike many other KGB agents, and respected the German trait of discipline. What Putin did in East Germany has been a matter of some speculation. Wines wrote, "Officially - and perhaps actually - his task was to track the political leanings of East Germans and their contacts with the West." John Lloyd stated in the New York Times Magazine, "His real task was to recruit agents to supply technical and economic information: he may have been involved in setting up a KGB network to prepare for the collapse of East Germany." Insight on the News reporter J. Michael Waller, meanwhile, claimed that Putin oversaw the notorious Stasi secret police force during the 1980s. Around the time Putin went to East Germany, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was beginning to introduce economic and social reforms. Putin was apparently a firm believer in the changes. In 1989 the Berlin Wall, separating East from West Germany, was torn down and the two began to unite.

Though Putin supposedly had known that this was inevitable, he was disappointed that it occurred amid chaos and that the Soviet leadership had not managed it better. In 1990 Putin returned to Leningrad and took a job in the international affairs department at his alma mater, screening foreign students. However, that was a cover for his continuing intelligence work. Before long, one of his former university professors, Anatoly Sobchak, who had become the first mayor of St. Petersburg (the former Leningrad), asked him to join his administration. In 1991, just as the Soviet Union was beginning to be unraveled, Putin resigned from the KGB at the rank of colonel, in order to get involved in politics. He allegedly quit because he wanted to be part of the important changes going on in Russia at the time, or perhaps because many of his colleagues in the KGB were persecuted after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In any event, he became the mayor's external affairs aide and, in 1994 became deputy mayor. However, a Newsweek report suggested that he might have been an infiltrator there as well. Due to Putin's secretive background as a KGB agent, information was scarce.

Many articles focused on the fact that, despite his popularity, few even in his own nation knew details of his background or where he stood on issues. His history as a spy caused many Westerners and some Russians as well to question whether he should be feared as a foe of democracy. In addition, Christian Caryl wrote in U.S. News and World Report, "Putin's watch at the FSB (from July 1998 until August 1999) coincided, in part, with a series of high-profile prosecutions of environmental activists accused of 'betraying state secrets' (actually publicizing the lackadaisical disposal of dangerous nuclear waste by the Russian military)." In Putin's first speech as acting president, he promised, "Freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, the right to private property these basic principles of a civilized society will be protected," according to a Newsweek report. In addition, Putin, a soft-spoken and stone-faced man, keeps his personal life very private. He and his wife have two daughters, Katya and Maria, who were both in their early teens when he became president. Putin has a black belt in judo and enjoys running.

He does not smoke, and does not drink alcohol, or at least drinks so rarely that it appears that way. In early 2000, an American publishing company announced that in May it would release an English-language translation of his memoirs, First Person, which was banned from publication in Russia until after the March 26 presidential election. Vladimir Putin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Vladimir Putin This article documents a current event . Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. Vladimir Putin ) (born October 7 , 1952 ) became President of Russia on December 31, 1999, succeeding Boris Yeltsin . Contents 14 External links [ edit ] Life and career Putin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1952. His biography, От Первого Лица (Romanization: Ot Pervogo Litsa), translated into English under the title First Person [1] and based on interviews conducted with Putin in 2000 was paid for by his election campaign. It speaks of humble beginnings, including early years in a rat-infested tenement in a communal apartment.

According to his biography, in his youth he was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov . In the same book, Putin notes that his paternal grandfather, a chef by profession, was brought to the Moscow suburbs to serve as a cook, at one of Stalin 's dachas . In "The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore , a footnote on page 300 cites Putin as saying that while his grandfather did not discuss his work very often, he recalled serving meals to Rasputin as a boy and also prepared food for Lenin . His mother was a factory worker and his father was conscripted into the navy, where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. His father subsequently served with the land forces during the Second World War . Two older brothers were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months of birth; the second succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad . Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexius II .

Putin graduated from the International Department of the Law Faculty of the Leningrad State University in 1975 and was recruited into the KGB . In First Person, Putin described to journalists his early duties in the KGB, which included suppressing dissident activities in Leningrad. From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden , East Germany , in what he regards as a minor position. Following the collapse of the East German regime, Putin was recalled to the Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June 1990 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to the Vice-Rector. In June 1991, he was appointed head of the International Committee of the St Petersburg Mayor's office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments. Putin formally resigned from the state security services on August 20 , 1991 , during the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev .

In 1994 he became First Deputy Chairman of the city of Saint Petersburg, a position he retained until he was called to Moscow, in August 1996 , to serve in a variety of senior positions in Boris Yeltsin 's second Administration. He was the first civilian head of the FSB (the successor agency to the KGB) from July 1998 to August 1999, and also served as Secretary of the Security Council from March to August 1999. During the 1990s, Putin received a graduate level degree in economics from a mining institute in St Petersburg. His dissertation was titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations". [ edit ] Family and personal life Putin is married to Lyudmila Putina , a former airline stewardess and teacher of German, who was born in Kaliningrad , (formerly Königsberg ). They have two daughters, Maria (born 1985) and Yekaterina (Katya) (born 1986 in Dresden ). The daughters attended the German School in Moscow (Deutsche Schule Moskau) until his appointment as prime minister.

Putin is a practicing member of the Russian Orthodox Church , led by Patriarch Alexius II . His conversion, which most observers agree was sincere, followed a life-threatening fire at his dacha in the early 1990s. Very unusual for communist Russia, his mother had been a regular church-goer. His father was a communist and atheist (although he seems not to have objected to his wife's beliefs). Putin speaks German with near-native fluency. His family used to speak German at home as well. Putin also speaks passable English . [ edit ] Prime Minister and first term as President Putin was appointed Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin in August 1999, making him Russia's fifth prime minister in less than eighteen months. On his appointment, few expected Putin, a virtual unknown, to last any longer than his predecessors. Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors, Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov and former Chairman of the Russian Government Yevgeniy Primakov , were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor.

Putin's law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the renewed crisis in Chechnya (see below) soon combined to raise his popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals. While not formally associated with any party, Putin was supported by the newly formed Edinstvo (unity) faction, which won the largest percentage of the popular vote in the December 1999 Duma elections. Putin was reappointed as Chairman of the Government, and seemed ideally positioned to win the presidency in elections due the following summer. His rise to Russia's highest office ended up being even more rapid: on December 31 , 1999 , Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and, according to the constitution, Putin was appointed as the second ( acting ) President of the Russian Federation. While his opponents were preparing for an election later that year in the fall, Yeltsin's resignation resulted in the elections being held right away, in March. This put all of his opponents at a disadvantage, giving him the element of surprise and an eventual victory. Presidential elections were held on March 26 , 2000 ; Putin won in the first round. Later Putin granted the former president and his family full immunity from prosecution (via presidential decree).

Shortly before, Yeltsin and his family had been under scrutiny for charges related to money-laundering by the Russian and Swiss authorities. [ edit ] Second term as President Vladimir Putin On March 14 , 2004 , Putin won re-election to the presidency for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote. Both the election campaign and the balloting were declared "free and fair" by an international observation mission run by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. On September 13 , 2004 , following the Beslan school hostage crisis , and nearly-concurrent Chechen terrorist attacks in Moscow, Putin launched an initiative to replace the election of regional governors with a system whereby they would be proposed by the President and approved or disapproved by regional legislatures . Opponents of this measure, including Mikhail Gorbachev , Boris Yeltsin , and Colin Powell , criticised it as a step away from democracy in Russia and a return to the centrally run political apparatus of the Soviet era. [1] A significant amount of Putin's second term has been focused on domestic issues.

According to various Russian and western media reports, Putin is extremely concerned about the ongoing demographic problems (death rate being higher than birth rate and immigration rate), cyclical poverty, and housing concerns within the Russian Federation. In 2005, four "national projects" were launched in the fields of healthcare, education, housing and agriculture. In his May 2006 annual speech, Putin proposed increasing maternity benefits and prenatal care for women. Putin has also been quite strident about the need to reform the judiciary. He refers to the federal judiciary as being "Sovietesque" and wants a judiciary that interprets and implements the code rather than the current situation, where many of the judges hand down the same verdicts as they would have under the old Soviet judiciary structure. In 2005, the responsibility for the federal prisons was transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Ministry of Justice. One of the most controversial aspects of Putin's second term was the prosecution of Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky , President of Yukos oil company, who stole from the Russian State and Russian people hundreds of millions of dollars.

While much of the international press saw this as a reaction against a man who was funding political opponents of the Kremlin, both liberal and Communist, the Russian government has argued that Khodorkovsky was in fact engaged in corrupting a large segment of the Duma to prevent changes in the tax code aimed at taxing windfall profits and closing offshore tax evasion vehicles. Certainly, many of the initial privatizations, including that of Yukos, are widely believed to have been fraudulent (Yukos, valued at some $30bn in 2004, had been privatized for $110 million), and like the other oligarchic groups, the Yukos-Menatep name has been frequently tarred with accusations of links to criminal organizations. In the recent years, the political philosophy of Putin's administration has been described as «sovereign democracy» . The political term recently gained wide acceptance within Russia itself and unified various political elites around it. According to its supporters, policy of the President must above all be supported by the popular majority in Russia itself and not be governed from outside of the country; such popular support constitutes the founding principle of a democratic society. [2] [3] See also: Second Chechen War .

Putin's rise to public office in August 1999 coincided with an aggressive resurgence of the near-dormant conflict in the North Caucasus, when Chechen nationalists regrouped and invaded neighbouring Daghestan . Both in Russia and abroad, Putin's public image was forged by his tough handling of this dire challenge [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] . During the autumn 1999 campaign for the Duma, Kremlin-controlled or allied media accused Putin's chief rivals of being soft on terrorism. On assuming the role of acting President on December 31, 1999, Putin proceeded on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya; one of the earliest images Russians saw of their new leader was the acting president presenting handing knives to soldiers. Throughout the winter of 2000, Putin's government regularly claimed that victory was at hand. In recent years, Putin has distanced himself from the management of the continuing conflict. In 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya adopting a new constitution which declares the Republic as a part of Russia.

The situation has been gradually stabilised with the parliamentary elections and the establishment of a government loyal to Moscow. [ edit ] Foreign policy In international affairs, Putin has been trying, not without success, to re-establish the strong and independent role once played by the Soviet Union, without, however returning to the cold-war relations with the West. On the contrary, Putin's Russia has been seeking stronger and more constructive ties with Europe and the US. Thus, Russia has become a full-fledged member of the G8 and is currently chairing the Group. At the same time, Putin's attention was equally focused on Asia , in particular China and India . Putin with US President George W. Bush at Prairie Chapel Ranch While President Putin is criticized as an autocrat by some of his Western counterparts[ citation needed ], his relationships with US President George W. Bush , former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder , French President Jacques Chirac , and the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are reported to be friendly. Putin's relationship with Germany's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel , is expected to be "cooler" and "more business-like" than his partnership with Gerhard Schröder [2] .

Putin surprised many Russian nationalists and even his own defense minister when, in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States, he agreed to the establishment of coalition military bases in Central Asia before and during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Russian nationalists objected to the establishment of any US military presence on the territory of the former Soviet Union, and had expected Putin to keep the US out of the Central Asian republics, or at the very least extract a commitment from Washington to withdraw from these bases as soon as the immediate military purpose had passed. Putin with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder . During the Iraq crisis of 2003 , Putin opposed Washington's move to invade Iraq without the benefit of a United Nations Security Council resolution explicitly authorizing the use of military force. After the official end of the war was announced, American president George W. Bush asked the United Nations to lift sanctions on Iraq . Putin supported lifting of the sanctions in due course, arguing that the UN commission first be given a chance to complete its work on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In 2005, Putin and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder negotiated the construction of a major oil pipeline over the Baltic exclusively between Russia and Germany.

Schröder also attended Putin's 53rd birthday in Saint Petersburg the same year. During his time in office, Putin has attempted to strengthen relations with other members of the CIS . The "near abroad" zone of traditional Russian influence has again become a foreign policy priority under Putin, as the EU and NATO have grown to encompass much of Central Europe and, more recently, the Baltic states . While tacitly accepting the enlargement of NATO into the Baltic states, Putin attempted to increase Russia's influence over Belarus and Ukraine . It is difficult to say whether these moves have been successful or not. During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election , Putin visited Ukraine twice before the election to show his support for Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and congratulated him on his alleged victory before the official election results had been announced. Putin's direct support for pro-Russian Yanukovych was widely criticized as unwarranted interference in the affairs of post-Soviet Ukraine. More recently, a crisis has emerged in Russia's relations with Georgia and Moldova , both former Soviet republics accusing Moscow of supporting separatist entities in their territories.

[ edit ] Crime In the 1990s, the growth of organized crime (see Russian mafia and Russian oligarchs ) and the fragmentation of law enforcement agencies in Russia coincided with a sharp rise in violence against business figures, administrative and state officials, and other public figures. [12] Putin inherited these problems when he took office, and during his election campaign in 2000, the new president won popular support by stressing the need to restore law and order and to bring rule of law to Russia as the only way of restoring confidence in the country's economy. [3] However, although street mafia-linked violence has decreased, criminal groups currently remain heavily involved the corruption of state and public officials. The Russian homicide rate doubled during the 1990s, and remains high to this day. [4] While the continued prevasiveness of crime in post-Soviet Russia does not appear to diminish Putin's domestic popularity, violence in Russia has taken a toll on Putin's reputation in the West.

For example, some notable Russian homicide or attempted homicide victims in the former Soviet Union have been Putin critics such as Viktor Yushchenko (September 2004), Anna Politkovskaya (October 2006), and Alexander Litvinenko (November 2006). Some Western Russian experts have cautioned against making any assumption of involvement of Putin associates in the deaths of Kremlin critics. "There is no direct evidence linking this to Mr Putin," said Alex Pravda of Chatham House and St Antony's College, Oxford. Pradva added, "You have to remember that an important aspect of Russian life at the moment is a lack of co-ordination between government, corporate and other organisations." "You should not assume, therefore, that an order, if there was one, came from the top. In Russia, a lot of things are done independently. But there is an obsession with security in Russia these days, and that permeates political life and could have influenced people." [5] [ edit ] Press freedom and intimidation According to the Committee to Protect Journalists , Putin "has brought much of the once thriving post-Soviet media under indirect government control through the use of punitive tax audits and hostile takeovers.

All three major television networks are now in the hands of Kremlin loyalists." [6] . The Committee to Protect Journalists also asserts that Russia has become the third most dangerous place in the world to work as a journalist. [7] [8] A number of Russian reporters who have covered contentious stories on Russia's campaign in Chechnya, organized crime, state and administrative officials, and large businesses have been murdered. On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya , a journalist who ran a campaign exposing corruption in the Russian army and its conduct in Chechnya , was found shot to death outside her apartment. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, she was the thirteenth journalist to be killed in Russia in 2006. When asked about Politkovskaya murder, Putin said that her murder brings much more harm to the Russian authorities than her publications. [13] Since Putin started his term in office, pressure started mounting on mass media companies owned by oligarchs. Boris Berezovsky was forced to deprive with his majority stock in ORT , a nationwide television network.

Ownership of another nationwide television network - NTV - was transferred from Vladimir Gusinsky to «Gazprom» to cover debts. After this, broadcasting of TV-6 ( TVC ) was terminated - the latter being a TV channel owned by Boris Berezovsky, to which a group of former NTV journalists was transferred. Nationwide TV channels like «First channel» (former ORT), «Russia» and NTV became de-facto state-controlled. News coverage raised discussions on freedom of speech in media. Critics is evoked by Western media, [14] Western non-governmental organizations, [15] as well as by some Russian media mostly financed from abroad. [16] At the same time, according to research conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center - VCIOM - which was published in June 2005 , the share of Russians approving censorship on TV has grown during the year prior to research from 63% to 82%. [17] Sociologists believe that Russians are not voting in favour of press freedom suppression, but rather for expulsion of ethically doubtful material from media broadcasts.

[17] [ edit ] Popular support for President Putin Portaits of President Putin on display in a Moscow stationery store. Although many reforms taken in modern Russia under Putin’s rule were generally criticized by Western media, "neither the Russian nor the American publics are convinced Russia is headed in an anti-democratic direction" and "Russians generally support Putin’s concentration of political power and strongly support the re-nationalization of Russia’s oil and gas industry", as shown in a joint poll by World Public Opinion in the U. S. and the Levada Center in Russia, in June-July 2006. Moreover, Russians generally support reforms initiated by Putin's team. According to a public opinion survey conducted in July 2006 by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center - VCIOM - Putin enjoyed support of 87% of all Russians in his home country, while 60% of them had full confidence in him by the time of the survey being conducted. [18] This is one of the highest job approval ratings among world leaders of his scale as of the year 2006.

[19] Interview with NBC TV channel taken on July 12, 2006, before G8 summit. [ edit ] Putin trivia and humour [ edit ] Judo President Vladimir Putin throwing a sparring partner at a training session in Novo-Ogaryovo , 16 June 2002 Putin works out regularly, spending much of his free time exercising.[ citation needed ] One of Putin's favorite sports is the martial art of judo . Putin began sambo (Soviet martial art developed for Red Army and NKVD ) at the age of 14, before switching to judo , which he continues to study today. [20] Putin won competitions in his hometown of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg ), including the senior championship of Leningrad. He is President of the Yawara Dojo, the same St. Petersburg dojo he studied at as a youth. Putin co-authored a book on his favorite sport, published in Russian as Judo with Vladimir Putin and in English under the title Judo: History, Theory, Practice. [21] Though he is not the first world leader to practice judo, Putin is the first leader to move forward in the advanced levels.

Currently, Putin is a black belt (6th dan) and is best known for his Harai goshi, a sweeping hip throw. [22] After a state visit to Japan , Putin was invited to the Kodokan Institute and showed the students and Japanese officials different judo techniques. [22] Vladimir Putin is Master of Sports (Soviet and Russian sport title) in Judo and Sambo . Vladimir Putin is also a fan of Thoroughbred horse racing and often attends races at racecourses throughout Russia. [ edit ] Decorations In September 2006, France's president Jacques Chirac awarded Vladimir Putin the dignity of the Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur , the French highest decoration, to celebrate his contribution to the friendship between the two countries. This decoration is usually awarded to the heads of state considered as very close to France. [ edit ] Accusation of plagiarism Vladimir Putin has been accused by fellows Clifford Gaddy and Igor Danchenko at the Brookings Institution of plagiarism .

As alleged in the article by The Washington Post , "large chunks of Putin's economics dissertation on planning in the natural resources sector were lifted straight out of a management text published by two University of Pittsburgh academics nearly 20 years earlier." [23] [ edit ] Anecdotes On June 28, 2005, Putin made headlines in an unusual incident involving a New England Patriots Super Bowl XXXIX championship ring. Three days earlier Putin had met with U.S. business executives, including Patriots owner Robert Kraft . Near the end of the meeting Kraft showed Putin the ring, which features 124 diamonds, and the president was clearly impressed. At this point Kraft handed the ring to Putin who tried it on for a moment, then slipped it into his pocket and promptly left. The event caused a brief stir as the New York Sun [9] and other news outlets suggested that Kraft had not intended to give away the very valuable ring. Kraft, who has Russian ancestors, later told the Associated Press that he gave the ring to Putin as a gift and token of respect.

[10] On October 19, 2006, Putin reportedly made disturbing remarks to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel about Israeli President Moshe Katsav . Putin was quoted as saying, "Say hello to your president. He really surprised us...turned out to be quite a mighty man. He raped 10 women. I never expected it from him. He surprised all of us. We all envy him." [11] Other news agencies (AP, AFP) reported a milder version of Putin's words: «Say hello to your president - he surprised us all. We could not even imagine that he can make it [or cope] with 10 women». [24] It was later confirmed that he actually said "had ten women" [12] In a call-in television programme Putin did not deny making the comment but said that using instruments such as protecting women’s rights to resolve political issues that are unconnected with this problem is absolutely inadmissible. And this is because it actually discredits the struggle for women’s rights. He also criticised the press's 'eavesdropping' on his conversation with Olmert as 'unseemly'.

[13] Putin kisses a little boy on the stomach in a Kremlin courtyard, June 28, 2006. On June 28, 2006 Putin, while walking by a small crowd of tourists in a Kremlin courtyard, gave a "belly kiss" to a young boy of five or six years old. As he talked with the boy for a few seconds, he tugged at the boy's shirt before finally lifting it up and kissing him on his bare stomach. This raised a few eyebrows around the world. In response to the controversy, the Russian president said, "He was very sweet. I'll be honest, I felt an urge to cuddle him like a kitten and that led to the gesture that I made. There was nothing behind it really." In a transcript published July 12th, 2006, Putin is reported to have responded to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's political criticism by saying, "I think the statements of your Vice-President of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot ." [14] U.S. President George W.

Bush later remarked that the comment was "pretty clever, actually, quite humorous." [15] During the 32nd G8 summit in July of 2006, Putin said at a press conference, "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly." in response to Bush's accusations of the decline of democracy in modern Russia. Also during the 32nd G8 summit, following journalists' criticisms of the Russian government's record on Human rights , Putin was quoted as remarking that, "There are also other questions, questions let's say about the fight against corruption. We'd be interested in hearing your experience, including how it applies to Lord Levy ." Lord Levy, a member of the British House of Lords , had been arrested (and bailed ) the previous week in relation to the " Cash for Peerages " police inquiry into the soliciting of financial donations to British political parties in return for honours. [16] [ edit ] Putin in humour and fiction The weekly TV show Kukly used puppets representing the most recognizable and powerful Russian politicians, including a puppet-president, to satirize current events.

The show was aired on NTV channel from 1994 to 2002. The success of Kukly was to a great extent due to its scriptwriter Victor Shenderovich . Short humorous stories about Vladimir Vladimirovich's everyday life and work Vladimir Vladimirovich™ are regularly published by journalist Maxim Kononenko, popularly known under the sobriquet "Mr. Parker". In these essays, often alluding to contemporary events, Parliament is depicted as consisting of androids, a Deputy Chief of Staff being both their constructor and programmer; Vladimir Vladimirovich is fond of collecting things concerned with key historical events or people, etc. A collection of these stories, thoroughly commented, was published as a book in August 2005. German and English versions of these anecdotes are available as well. Kononenko wrote that some of these stories were brought to Putin. Screen versions of the Vladimir Vladimirovich™ series are shown in a weekly analytical programme "Realnaya politika" with Gleb Pavlovsky , aired on NTV channel (although the androids are not shown).

Andrey Dorofeev's vision of Putin compares Putin (a former KGB agent) to Dzerzhinsky , the founder of the KGB. In the South Park episode Free Willzyx , Putin is shown as a president that badly needs money for the Russian economy. He is shown to be extremely excited when he is asked to fly a whale to the moon for 20 million dollars as this money will save Russia. Several comedic sources have commented on the fact that Putin bears a resemblance to Dobby from the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . On his show, The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert announced his support for Putin in the 2008 U.S. presidential election . Vladimir Putin – Personal website Childhood An ordinary family Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in Leningrad. “I come from an ordinary family, and this is how I lived for a long time, nearly my whole life. I lived as an average, normal person and I have always maintained that connection,” Mr Putin recalls. Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Mother Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Vladimir Putin’s mother, Maria Shelomova, was a very kind, benevolent person.

“We lived simply - cabbage soup, cutlets, pancakes, but on Sundays and holidays my Mom would bake very delicious stuffed buns [pirozhki] with cabbage, meat and rice, and curd tarts [vatrushki],” Mr Putin says. His mother did not approve of his decision to do judo. “Every time I went to a practice session, she would grumble, ‘He’s off to his fights again.’” Things changed after Vladimir Putin’s coach visited his home and told his parents about what he did and what he achieved; the family’s attitude toward this sport changed. My mother baked some very delicious stuffed buns – with cabbage, meat and rice, — and curd tarts. Vladimir Putin Father Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive His father, Vladimir Putin, participated in the war. In the 1950s, he worked as a security guard and later as a foreman at the carriage works. “My father was born in St Petersburg in 1911. When World War I began, life in St Petersburg became hard, people were starving, so the entire family moved to Pominovo, a village in the Tver Region my grandmother came from.

Incidentally, my relatives still vacation in the house where my grandparents lived. It was in Pominovo that my father met my mother, and they got married at the age of 17.” Post-war years Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive After the war, the Putin family moved into a room in a communal apartment [kommunalka], in a typical St Petersburg dwelling house on Baskov Lane. Vladimir Putin recalls, “It was a building with a well-like yard. Fifth floor. No elevator. Before the war [World War II], my parents occupied half of the house in Peterhof and were very proud of the living standards they had achieved then. It wasn’t really much, but it seemed like an ultimate dream to them.” 1960s School years A troublemaker, not a Pioneer In 1960-1968, Vladimir Putin attended Primary School No. 193 in Leningrad. After the eighth grade, he entered High School No. 281, a chemistry-focused magnet school under the aegis of a technology institute, completing his studies there in 1970.

Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive I was always late for my first class, so even in winter I didn’t have time to dress properly. Vladimir Putin Teacher Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive From first and eighth grade, Vladimir Putin studied at School No. 193. As he recalls, he was a troublemaker, not a Pioneer. His teacher, Vera Gurevich, recalls, “In the fifth grade, he still hadn’t found himself yet, but I could feel the potential, the energy and the character in him. I saw that he had a great deal of interest in language; he picked it up easily. He had a very good memory and an agile mind. I thought, something good will come of this boy, so I decided to give him more attention, to distract him from the boys on the streets.” A search for priorities Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Until the sixth grade, Vladimir Putin was not very interested in studying, but his teacher Vera Gurevich saw that he could do better and get higher grades. She met with his father asking him to influence his son. It did not help much, but Vladimir Putin himself radically changed his attitude toward his studies when he was in the sixth grade.

Mr Putin notes, “Other priorities were emerging. I was asserting myself through sports, achieving something. There were new goals, too. No doubt, this had an enormous effect.” Potential, energy, character Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive In the sixth grade, Vladimir Putin decided that he needed to achieve something in life, so he began getting good grades, which came easily to him. He was allowed to join the Young Pioneers organisation, and almost immediately became the head of a Pioneer detachment in his class. “It became clear that street smarts were not enough, so I began doing sports. But even that was not enough for maintaining my status, so to speak, for very long. I realised that I also needed to study well,” Vladimir Putin says. 1970s Higher Education Leningrad State University and KGB school In 1970, Vladimir Putin became a student of law department at Leningrad State University, earning his degree in 1975. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr Putin studied at KGB School No. 1 in Moscow. Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Even before I finished high school, I wanted to work in intelligence.

Granted, soon after, I decided I wanted to be a sailor, but then I wanted to do intelligence again. In the very beginning, I wanted to be a pilot. Vladimir Putin A sailor? A pilot? An intelligence officer. Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Even before he finished school, Vladimir Putin wanted to work in intelligence. He went to a public reception office of the KGB Directorate to find out how to become an intelligence officer. There, he was told that first, he would have to either serve in the army or complete college, preferably with a degree in law. “And from that moment, I began preparing myself to enter the law department at Leningrad State University,” Mr Putin notes. New goals, new values Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive In 1970, Vladimir Putin was admitted to law department at Leningrad State University. “We had a class of 100 people, and only 10 of them entered immediately after high school, the rest had already completed military service. So for us, the high-school graduates, only one out of 40 was admitted.

I got four out of five for the essay, but top marks for everything else, so I passed.” “When I began studying at the university, new goals and new values emerged. I mainly focused on studies, and began seeing sports as secondary. But, of course, I trained on a regular basis and participated in nation-wide competitions, almost out of habit.” State Security Agencies Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive After graduating from Leningrad State University, Putin was assigned to work in the state security agencies. “My perception of the KGB was based on the idealistic stories I heard about intelligence.” He was first appointed to the Directorate secretariat, then the counterintelligence division, where he worked for about five months. Half a year later, he was sent to operations personnel retraining courses. Mr Putin spent another six months working in the counterintelligence division. That was when he drew attention from foreign intelligence officers. “Fairly quickly, I left for special training in Moscow, where I spent a year. Then I returned again to Leningrad, worked there in the First Main Directorate – the intelligence service. That directorate had branches in major cities of the Soviet Union, including Leningrad.

I worked there for about four and a half years.” Then Mr Putin returned again to Moscow to study at the Andropov Red Banner Institute, where he was trained for his trip to Germany. 1980s Wedding and Germany There was something about him… Having completed his studies at the Andropov Institute, Vladimir Putin left for East Germany in 1985 and worked there until 1990. But before he left, another major event in his life took place. Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Wife Lyudmila Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Vladimir Putin met Lyudmila Shkrebneva through a mutual friend. Lyudmila worked as a flight attendant on domestic airlines and had come to Leningrad for three days with a friend. “I was already working in the First Main Directorate in St Petersburg, when a friend of mine called and invited me to the Arkady Raikin theatre. He said he already had the tickets, and mentioned there would be two young ladies joining us. So we went to the performance and the young ladies did join us. The next day, we went to the theatre again, but it was now my turn to buy the tickets.

And the same thing happened on the third day. I then began dating one of the girls. I became friends with Lyudmila, my future wife,” Mr Putin recalls. “There was something about Vladimir that attracted me. Three or four months later, I already knew this was the man I needed,” Lyudmila recalls. Three years after their first meeting, Vladimir proposed to Lyudmila. “I knew that if I did not marry for another two or three years, I would not marry at all. True, I was used to life as a bachelor, but Lyudmila changed that,” Mr Putin admits. They got married on July 28, 1983. I became friends with Lyudmila, my future wife. Vladimir Putin Daughters Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive In 1985, before their departure for Germany, Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin welcomed their first daughter, Maria. Their second daughter, Katerina, was born in 1986, in Dresden. Both girls were named in honour of their grandmothers, Maria Putina and Yekaterina Shkrebneva.

According to their mother, Lyudmila, Mr Putin loves his daughters very much. “Not all fathers are as loving with their children as he is. And he has always spoiled them, while I was the one who had to discipline them,” she says. Dresden Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive In 1985-1990, Vladimir Putin worked in East Germany. He served at the local intelligence office in Dresden. Over the course of his service, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and to the position of senior assistant to the head of the department. In 1989, he was awarded the bronze medal issued in the German Democratic Republic, For Faithful Service to the National People’s Army. “My work was going well. It was a normal thing to be promoted just once while working abroad. I was promoted twice,” Mr Putin says. 1990s From assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University to Acting President Leningrad – Moscow After returning to Leningrad from Germany in 1990, Vladimir Putin became assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University in charge of international relations.

In 1996, he and his family moved to Moscow, where his political career began. Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Leningrad – St Petersburg Vladimir Putin. After returning to Leningrad from Dresden in 1990, Vladimir Putin found new job as assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University, in which position he was responsible for international relations. “I was happy to find work at Leningrad State University,” he later recalled. “I took the job hoping at the same time to write my Ph.D. thesis and, perhaps, stay on and work there afterwards. That was how I ended up, in 1990, becoming assistant to the rector in charge of international relations.” Soon he also became an adviser to the chairman of the Leningrad City Council. Starting in June 1991, Putin began work as Chairman of the Committee for International Relations at the St Petersburg City Hall, and from 1994, concurrently held the position of Deputy Chairman of the St Petersburg City Government. After starting work at the City Hall, Putin sent in his resignation from the KGB. Probably the fact that I did not want to be any sort of president helped. Vladimir Putin Moscow.

Prime Minister with prospects Vladimir Putin at the Government House. In 1996, Vladimir Putin moved with his family to Moscow, where he was offered the post of Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Directorate. “I would not say that I did not like Moscow, but simply that I liked St Petersburg more. But Moscow was very obviously a European city,” Putin recalled. His career rise was rapid. In March 1997, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office and Chief of Main Control Directorate. Busy with work as he was, he still found time to defend his doctoral thesis on economics at the St Petersburg State Mining Institute. In May 1998, Putin was made First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office, and in July 1998, he was appointed Director of the Federal Security Service. From March 1999, he also held the position of Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. In August 1999, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of the Russian Government. The post was offered to him by then President Boris Yeltsin.

As Putin later recalled, “Mr Yeltsin invited me to come and see him and said that he wanted to offer me the prime minister’s job. <…> Incidentally, he never used the word ‘successor’ in his conversation with me then, but spoke of becoming ‘prime minister with prospects’, and said that if all went well, he thought this could be possible”. Putin described his time in the prime minister’s office as an honour and an interesting experience. “I thought then, if I can get through a year that will already be a good start. If I can do something to help save Russia from falling apart then this would be something to be proud of.” Acting President of the Russian Federation Photo from Vladimir Putin’s personal archive Shortly before the New Year of 2000 rolled in, President of Russia Boris Yeltsin proposed that Vladimir Putin become Acting President. “Two or three weeks before New Year, Mr Yeltsin called me to his office and said that he had decided to step down. This meant I would have to become Acting President,” Putin recalled. Putin described it as not an easy decision to make, given that it is “a rather heavy load to bear”.

“I had my own thoughts, my own reasoning, but at the same time, there was another logic I had to consider too. Fate was offering me the chance to work for the country at the very highest level and it would have been foolish to say, no, I’m going to go and sell sunflower seeds instead, or go into private legal practice. I could do all those other things later after all, and so I decided that this had to come first, and everything else later,” Putin explained his choice. On December 31, 1999, Vladimir Putin became Acting President of the Russian Federation. 2000s President and Prime Minister You always need to think about the future, always look ahead Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia on March 26, 2000, and was re-elected to a second term on March 14, 2004. On May 8, 2008, he was appointed Prime Minister by presidential executive order. Vladimir Putin speaking at an official event celebrating the Police Day professional holiday. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin at the inauguration ceremony.

Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia on March 26, 2000. He was officially inaugurated on May 7, 2000. In his inauguration speech he said, “We have common aims, we want our Russia to be a free, prosperous, flourishing, strong and civilized country, a country that its citizens are proud of and that is respected internationally.” He added that he would be guided solely by the interests of the state. “Perhaps it will not be possible to avoid mistakes, but what I can promise and what I do promise is that I will work openly and honestly”, Putin said. I consider it to be my sacred duty to unify the people of Russia, to rally citizens around clear aims and tasks, and to remember every day and every minute that we have one Motherland, one people and one future. Vladimir Putin Second presidential term Vladimir Putin at the presidential inauguration ceremony. Vladimir Putin was re-elected to a second presidential term on March 14, 2004. In his Address to the Federal Assembly on May 26, 2004, Putin said, “Our goals are very clear.

We want high living standards and a safe, free and comfortable life for the country. We want a mature democracy and a developed civil society. We want to strengthen Russia’s place in the world. But our main goal, I repeat, is to bring about a noticeable rise in our people’s prosperity. We have better knowledge today of our own potential and we know what resources we have at our disposal. We understand the obstacles we could face in reaching the goals we have set and we are actively modernising the state in order to make sure that its functions correspond to the present stage of Russia’s development – that of achieving a real rise in living standards.” Prime Minister of the Russian Government Vladimir Putin’s appointment as Prime Minister was approved. On May 8, 2008, Vladimir Putin was appointed Russian Prime Minister by presidential executive order. “Russia has grown much stronger in recent years,” Putin said at a session of the Russian Federation State Duma. “We have enough resources to tackle still more ambitious tasks and goals. The important thing is to make competent, effective and proper use of the accumulated potential.

For my part I am ready to exert every effort to achieve the goals set, to deliver new and significant results for the prosperity of our country and for the sake of a worthy life for Russian citizens.” 2010s In the Prime Minister’s job People must be the centre of attention People are at the centre of the Prime Minister’s attention. Putin said that the authorities must draw their support solely from the Russian people, and if this support is absent, the authorities have no place in power. In November 2011, Putin was nominated as candidate for Russian president. Vladimir Putin met with victims of fires in Voronezh. Taking personal control Vladimir Putin visited sites where work was underway to put out peat bog fires around Kolomna in Moscow Region. Vladimir Putin took the reconstruction of homes and compensation for victims of the wildfires in the summer of 2010 under his personal control. Round-the-clock monitoring was set up at the sites where new housing was being built for the fire victims. Video cameras working 24 hours a day were installed at all of the main sites. The construction work could be followed on monitors at the Government House, at Vladimir Putin’s residence, and on the Government website.

Families of those killed by the fires received 1 million rubles [$33,000] in compensation, and each member of families affected by the fires received 100,000 rubles. All of the people whose homes were destroyed received new homes or apartments by the start of winter, or, at their request, received monetary compensation. A total of 2,200 families built new homes. If I do something, I try to see it through to its completion, or at least try to ensure that it brings the maximum result. Vladimir Putin Did Putin play a role in getting Russian judo team approval for Rio Games? - Rediff.com Sports Rediff.com » Sports » Did Putin play a role in getting Russian judo team approval for Rio Games? Did Putin play a role in getting Russian judo team approval for Rio Games? July 26, 2016 19:07 IST IMAGE: Russia's President Vladimir Putin practises with Musa Mogushkov of the Russian national judo team during a training session in Sochi, Russia, on January 8, 2016.

Photograph: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin/Files/Reuters The International Judo Federation -- which lists Russian President Vladimir Putin as its honorary president -- will allow the sport's Russian squad to participate in the Olympics, its head told Reuters on Tuesday. The International Olympic Committee has left it up to the world governing bodies of each sport to decide if Russian teams can go to Rio after the World Anti-doping Agency said there was a state-sponsored programme of doping in Russian sport. Judo joins tennis as sports that have decided to allow Russian competitors to participate. Track and field, swimming and canoeing have so far said Russians will be banned. Putin is a judo blackbelt and frequently shown on television practicing the sport. In addition to Putin's honorary role at the federation, one of his closest friends sits on its executive committee. Federation president Marius Vizer said neither factor played any role in its decisions.

Asked in a telephone interview with Reuters about the 11 Russian judo competitors -- seven male and four female -- who have qualified for the Olympics, Vizer said: "They will go to Rio." "All those athletes have been tested starting from September last year until the end of May, on many occasions, at many international judo events, not in Russia, abroad from Russia," Vizer said. "There was no punishment, no negative evidence, we don't take into consideration any analysis or tests made in Russia, because for us it is not relevant." Source: © Copyright 2017 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. 15 years in power: RT traces Vladimir Putin's presidential path — RT News Tags Anniversary , Putin , Russia , Politics , Murad Gazdiev After former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin resigned back on December 31, 1999, his Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took over the reins, inheriting a country in a dire economic situation and struggling with lawlessness.

Thus, the largely-unknown Putin was faced with challenges. The Western press instantly took a liking to him, some saying he “combined liberal-mindedness and toughness that seem to appeal to Russian people.” First, Putin dealt with the crisis in the Russian Republic of Chechnya, which at the time was a terrorist hotspot. He pronounced what would become one of the catchphrases that illustrate his powerful political hand: “We will hunt down the terrorists everywhere, in airports, and if we capture them in toilets, we’ll waste them in the outhouse.” Thus, following a string of terror attacks across Russia, Putin started the Second Chechen campaign and brutal fighting ensued. The ‘iron fist’ didn’t win Putin many admirers in the foreign media, but earned him a great deal of respect and support at home. READ MORE: Russia 10 years after Yeltsin: results Next he turned his attention to the oligarchs, hugely powerful in Russia at the end of the 1990s, and one by one, several of the tycoons toppled. However, the road to coping with their immense influence was bumpy.

“Some of them came into my office, and they said to me, ‘Do you realize you’ll never be president?’” Putin recalled in his latest interview with the Russian TV presenter Vladimir Soloviev. READ MORE: 'Putin’s Syria role deserving of Nobel Peace Prize' Once Putin had dealt with the issues at home, it was time to work on Russia’s foreign ties. “I looked the man in the eye, I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul,” US president George W. Bush said at the 2001 Slovenia summit. However, Putin’s first term wasn’t getting any easier: the tragedy with the ‘Kursk’ submarine in August 2000 caused anger and frustration at home, and humiliation abroad, when all 118 sailors and officers on board perished. Despite this, in 2000-2004, Russia witnessed a dramatic rise in GDP, and the economy forged ahead with the oligarchs onside. This sealed Putin’s path to a second presidential term, which started with one of the greatest tragedies modern Russia had to go through: the Beslan school siege.

Over 1,000 people were held hostage in North Ossetia on the first day of the school year – 800 of them children. Almost 200 kids died in the three-day siege. READ MORE: 3 days in hell: Russia mourns Beslan school siege victims 10 years on Security forces and the president himself were often blamed for the tragic events, and state control tightened to cope with Islamist extremists. This, in turn, triggered claims in the Western media that Putin was “getting control of both houses of the parliament, of the political parties” and also “suppressing civil society groups that don’t toe his line.” This, however, didn’t seem to lower Putin’s popularity among his public, whom he never ceased to surprise: from singing and piano playing to judo and racecar driving, the cameras captured it all. Precluded in 2008 by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term, Putin became the Russian Prime Minister, alongside new leader Dmitry Medvedev. That year, the global financial crisis rocked the Russian economy. “A year ago, on this very stage, our American friends told us about the fundamental of the US dollar,” Putin noted during the World Economic Forum that year.

Russia slowly, but steadily, recovered from the crisis, and the middle class started growing the country, leading to another phenomenon known as ‘anti-Putinism’. Claims of fraud during the 2011 parliamentary elections saw thousands take to the streets all over Russia. This made Putin’s 2012 victory in the presidential elections even more important for the majority of the public who supported him. “I promised you we would win. We have won!” he declared to the cheering crowd after the results were announced. By 2013, the Russian economy had grown tenfold under Putin, while the national debt was at one of the lowest levels in the developed world. Pensions and salaries had also dramatically increased. Of course, there was no better way to celebrate the dramatic changes than by hosting the Winter Olympics. Despite all allegations of corruption and terrorist threats on the ground, the Games went on without a hitch, with Russia at the very top of the medal table. The victorious mood didn’t last long, though: a violent coup in neighboring Ukraine placed Russia in a tough position regarding Crimea, where ethnic Russians constitute 65 percent of the population. The Crimean Peninsula is also home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and thousands of military men.

“We had to take measures to prevent the situation from developing in the way it has [subsequently] done in eastern Ukraine: with tanks and well-armed radical nationalists. Our servicemen acted reasonably, decisively and professionally,” Putin later explained. READ MORE: Putin’s 15 years in politics: 'President' doc to feature never-seen-before footage In the weeks following the coup, a referendum was rapidly organized, with 96 percent of voters saying an eager ‘yes’ to joining the Russian Federation. “It was about millions of Russians, millions of our compatriots, who needed our help and support,” Putin said. The move triggered Russia’s suspension from the G8 and severe sanctions from the West. After 15 years in power, Vladimir Putin has made one thing crystal clear: he is not one to shy away from a challenge. “Maybe our bear needs to sit quietly, eat his berries and honey, maybe then he will just be left alone. But no – they’ll always be trying to put him on a chain, and as soon as they do that, they’ll pull out his teeth and claws,” the president said during one of the recent Q&A sessions he regularly holds, both with the press and with the members of the community.

Question: What sport is associated with Vladimir Putin, the second President of the Russian Federation?
Answer: Judo