Vladimir Putin
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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born October 7, 1952) is the current president of the Russian Federation.
Putin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). He was a KGB officer from 1975 to 1991 and head of the FSB (the KGB's successor} from July 1998 to August 1999. He was prime minister in Boris Yeltsin's government from August 1999. As Prime Minster he won great acclaim from the Russian people for managing the reinvasion of Chechnya. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned, and made Putin the second (acting) President of the Russian Federation. Proper Presidential elections were held on March 26, 2000, which Putin won.
In international affairs, Putin has been publicly increasingly critical of the foreign policies of the US and other Western countries. In February 2007, at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, he criticised what he calls the United States' monopolistic dominance in global relations, and pointed out that the United States displayed an "almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations".
Unlike his predecessor, President Putin has been less enthusiastic about erasing Russia's Soviet past from memory. He has stated his belief that whatever the crimes of the Communist regime, it was neverless an important part of Russian history, and an important influence on the creation of modern Russian society. As a result, some Soviet era symbols have been allowed to return to Russia, such as the trademark red military flag, the "Soviet Star" crest, and the Soviet national anthem (although with revised lyrics).
Putin was against the war in Iraq during the Iraq crisis of 2003. After the war ended with American victory, American president George W. Bush asked the United Nations for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. Putin was against the lifting of the sanctions, arguing that first weapons of mass destruction should be destroyed.
In 2004, he was re-elected for a second term, which expires on May 7, 2008.
The Constitution of Russia imposes consecutive term limits that prevent Putin from running for re-election again in 2008, although he would be allowed to run for President in the following presidential election, scheduled for 2012. On November 26, 2007, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov was quoted by Interfax news agency, saying that the fact that the election day had been set to March 2, 2008, would allow Putin, who is required by term limits to leave office when his second term ends in May 2008, the option of resigning early and then running again. [1]
There are speculations in some media that Putin might be planning to have an influential role in the government preceding the elections [2], however on February 1, 2007 Putin publicly rebuked such speculations: "there will be no successors. There will be candidates for the post of the President of the Russian Federation." [3].
On October 1, 2007, Putin announced he would run as first on the list for United Russia and might consider becoming Prime Minister of Russia.[4] [5]
On December 10, 2007, Putin backed First deputy prime-minister and chairman of Gazprom Dmitry Medvedev's candidature for presidential election, nominated by Putin's United Russia party, as well as Agrarian Party, liberal Civilian Power and pro-Kremlin socialistic Fair Russia. [6] It has been long believed by political analysts that Putin's choice of a successor will coast to an easy election-day victory as pre-election opinion polls have indicated that a substantial majority of potential voters will back Putin's chosen candidate for president.[7] Medvedev announced in his first speech since his own nomination that as President, he will nominate Vladimir Putin to the post of prime minister to head the Russian government, if the latter was willing to accept it.[8] Although constitutionally barred from a third consecutive presidential term, such a role would arguably allow Putin to continue as a national leader, and to take up again the presidency later if he so chose. Some analysts have been quick to point out that such a statement shows that Medvedev recognizes that he would only be a figurehead president.[9]
Putin has pledged that he would accept the position of prime minister should Medvedev be elected president. Although Putin has pledged not to change the distribution of authority between president and prime minister, many analysts are expecting a shift in the center of power from the presidency to the prime minister post should Putin assumes the latter under a Medvedev presidency.[10]
At the United Russia party congress on December 17, 2007, Medvedev was officially nominated and Putin agreed to become prime minister if Medvedev won the election.[11]
External Links
Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Vladimir Putin" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin, used under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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