Vladimir Putin Biography

Vladimir Putin Biography

Vladimir Putin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин, IPA: [vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪr vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈputʲɪn] ( listen), born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician who has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012. He previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During that last term, he was also the Chairman of the United Russia.

For 16 years Putin served as an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly. Putin won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was re-elected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy".[1] In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six,[2] Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. He won the election in March 2012 and is serving a six-year term.[3][4]

Many of Putin's actions are regarded by the domestic opposition and foreign observers as undemocratic.[5] The 2011 Democracy Index stated that Russia was in "a long process of regression [that] culminated in a move from a hybrid to an authoritarian regime" in view of Putin's candidacy and flawed parliamentary elections.[6]

During Putin's first premiership and presidency (1999–2008), real incomes increased by a factor of 2.5, real wages more than tripled; unemployment and poverty more than halved and the Russians' self-assessed life satisfaction rose significantly.[7] Putin's first presidency was marked by high economic growth: the Russian economy grew for eight straight years, seeing GDP increase by 72% in PPP (sixfold in nominal).[7][8][9][10][11] As Russia's president, Putin and the Federal Assembly passed into law a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes.[12][13] As Prime Minister, Putin oversaw large scale military and police reform. His energy policy has affirmed Russia's position as an energy superpower.[14] Putin supported high-tech industries such as the nuclear and defence industries. A rise in foreign investment[15] contributed to a boom in such sectors as the automotive industry. Putin has cultivated a "he-man" and "super hero" image and is a pop cultural icon in Russia with many commercial products named after him. He is currently ranked as the world's most powerful man according to Forbes.[16]

Ancestry, early life and education

Putin was born on 7 October 1952, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (modern day Saint Petersburg, Russia),[17] to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (née Shelomova; 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, and later served in the NKVD during World War II.[18][19][20][21] 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 in World War II.

Vladimir Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879–1965), was employed at Vladimir Lenin's dacha at Gorki as a cook, and after Lenin's death in 1924, he continued to work for Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. He would later cook 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.[22]

The ancestry of Vladimir Putin has been described as a mystery with no records surviving of any ancestors of any people with the surname "Putin" beyond his grandfather Spiridon Ivanovich. His autobiography, Ot Pervogo Litsa (English: In the First Person),[18] which is based on Putin's interviews, speaks of humble beginnings, including early years in a communal apartment in Leningrad.

On 1 September 1960, he started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, just across from his house. By fifth grade he was one of a few in a class of more than 45 pupils who was not yet a member of the Pioneers, largely because of his rowdy behavior. In sixth grade he started taking sport seriously in the form of sambo and then judo. In his youth, Putin was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov.[23]

Putin graduated from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975, writing his final thesis on international law.[24] His PhD thesis was titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations" and it argued that Russian economic success would depend on creating national energy champions.[25] While at university he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until the party was dissolved in December 1991.[26] Also at the University he met Anatoly Sobchak who later played an important role in Putin's career. Anatoly Sobchak was at the time an Assistant Professor and lectured Putin's class on Business Law (khozyaystvennoye pravo).[27]

KGB career

Putin joined the KGB in 1975 upon graduation, and underwent a year's training at the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad. He then went on to work briefly in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence) before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where among his duties was the monitoring of foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad.[28][29]

From 1985 to 1990, the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany.[30] Following the collapse of the communist East German government, Putin was recalled to the Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June 1991 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov.[29] In his new position, Putin maintained surveillance on the student body and kept an eye out for recruits. It was during his stint at the university that Putin grew reacquainted with his former professor Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad.[31]

Putin finally resigned from the active state security services with the rank of lieutenant colonel on 20 August 1991 (with some attempts to resign made earlier),[31] on the second day of the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.[32] Putin later explained his decision: "As soon as the coup began, I immediately decided which side I was on", though he also noted that the choice was hard because he had spent the best part of his life with "the organs".[33]

Political career

Saint Petersburg administration (1990–1996)

In May 1990, Putin was appointed as an advisor on international affairs to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Then, on 28 June 1991, he became head of the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments.[34] That Committee headed by Putin also registered business ventures.

Less than one year later, Putin was investigated by the city legislative council, and the investigators concluded that Putin had understated prices and permitted the export of metals valued at $93 million, in exchange for foreign food aid that never arrived.[35][36] Despite the investigators' recommendation that Putin be fired, Putin remained head of the Committee for External Relations until 1996.[37][38] From 1994 to 1996, Putin held several other political and governmental positions in Saint Petersburg.[39][39]

Early Moscow career (1996–1999)

In 1996, Mayor Anatoly Sobchak lost his bid for reelection in Saint Petersburg. Putin was called to Moscow and in June 1996 became a Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department headed by Pavel Borodin. He occupied this position until March 1997. During his tenure Putin was responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized transfer of the former assets of the Soviet Union and Communist Party to the Russian Federation.[27]

On 26 March 1997, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy chief of Presidential Staff, which he remained until May 1998, and chief of the Main Control Directorate of the Presidential Property Management Department (until June 1998). His predecessor on this position was Alexei Kudrin and the successor was Nikolai Patrushev, both future prominent politicians and Putin's associates.[27]

On 27 June 1997, at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, guided by rector Vladimir Litvinenko, Putin defended his Candidate of Science dissertation in economics, titled "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations".[40] This exemplified the custom in Russia for a rising young official to write a scholarly work in midcareer.[41] When Putin later became president, the dissertation became a target of plagiarism accusations by fellows at the Brookings Institution; though the allegedly plagiarised study was referenced,[42][43] the Brookings fellows felt sure it constituted plagiarism albeit perhaps not "intentional".[42] The dissertation committee denied the accusations.[43]

On 25 May 1998, Putin was appointed First Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff for regions, replacing Viktoriya Mitina; and, on 15 July, was appointed Head of the Commission for the preparation of agreements on the delimitation of power of regions and the federal center attached to the President, replacing Sergey Shakhray. After Putin's appointment, the commission completed no such agreements, although during Shakhray's term as the Head of the Commission there were 46 agreements signed.[44] Later, after becoming president, Putin canceled all those agreements.[27]

On 25 July 1998, Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin head of the FSB (one of the successor agencies to the KGB), the position Putin occupied until August 1999. He became a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on 1 October 1998 and its Secretary on 29 March 1999.

First Premiership (1999)

On 9 August 1999, Vladimir Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, and later on that day was appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin.[45] Yeltsin also announced that he wanted to see Putin as his successor. Still later on that same day, Putin agreed to run for the presidency.[46]

On 16 August, the State Duma approved his appointment as Prime Minister with 233 votes in favour (vs. 84 against, 17 abstained),[47] while a simple majority of 226 was required, making him Russia's fifth PM in fewer than eighteen months. On his appointment, few expected Putin, virtually unknown to the general public, to last any longer than his predecessors. He was initially regarded as a Yeltsin loyalist; like other prime ministers of Boris Yeltsin, Putin did not choose ministers himself, his cabinet being determined by the presidential administration.[48]

Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and they fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor. Putin's law-and-order image and his unrelenting approach to the Second Chechen War, soon combined to raise Putin's popularity and allowed him to overtake all rivals.

While not formally associated with any party, Putin pledged his support to the newly formed Unity Party,[49] which won the second largest percentage of the popular vote (23.3%) in the December 1999 Duma elections, and in turn he was supported by it.

Acting Presidency (1999–2000)

On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and, according to the Constitution of Russia, Putin became Acting President of the Russian Federation. On assuming this role, Putin went on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya.

The first Presidential Decree that Putin signed, on 31 December 1999, was titled "On guarantees for former president of the Russian Federation and members of his family".[50][51] This ensured that "corruption charges against the outgoing President and his relatives" would not be pursued.[52] Later, on 12 February 2001, Putin signed a similar federal law which replaced the decree of 1999.

While his opponents had been preparing for an election in June 2000, Yeltsin's resignation resulted in the Presidential elections being held within three months, on 26 March 2000; Putin won in the first round with 53% of the vote.[53]

First Presidential term (2000–2004)

The first major challenge to Putin's popularity came in August 2000, when he was criticized for his alleged mishandling of the Kursk submarine disaster.[54] That criticism was largely because it was several days before he returned from vacation, and several more before he visited the scene.[54]

Vladimir Putin was inaugurated president on 7 May 2000. He appointed Minister of Finance Mikhail Kasyanov as his Prime minister.

Between 2000 and 2004, Putin apparently won a power-struggle with the Russian oligarchs, reaching a 'grand-bargain' with them. This bargain allowed the oligarchs to maintain most of their powers, in exchange for their explicit support – and alignment with – his government.[55][56] A new group of business magnates, such as Gennady Timchenko, Vladimir Yakunin, Yury Kovalchuk, Sergey Chemezov, with close personal ties to Putin, also emerged.

Many in the Russian press and in the international media warned that the death of some 130 hostages in the special forces' rescue operation during the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis would severely damage President Putin's popularity. However, shortly after the siege had ended, the Russian president was enjoying record public approval ratings – 83% of Russians declared themselves satisfied with Putin and his handling of the siege.[57]

A few months before elections, Putin fired Prime Minister Kasyanov's cabinet and appointed Mikhail Fradkov to his place. Sergey Ivanov became the first civilian in Russia to take Defense Minister position.

In 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya adopting a new constitution which declares the Republic as a part of Russia. Chechnya has been gradually stabilized with the establishment of the parliamentary elections and a regional government.[58][59]

Throughout the war, Russia severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement. However, sporadic violence continued to occur throughout the North Caucasus.[60]

Second Presidential term (2004–2008)

On 14 March 2004, Putin was elected to the presidency for a second term, receiving 71% of the vote.[53] The Beslan school hostage crisis took place in September 2004, in which hundreds died. In response, Putin took a variety of administrative measures.

In 2005, the National Priority Projects were launched to improve Russia's health care, education, housing and agriculture.[61][62]

The continued criminal prosecution of Russia's then richest man, President of YUKOS company Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for fraud and tax evasion was seen by the international press as a retaliation for Khodorkovsky's donations to both liberal and communist opponents of the Kremlin. The government said that Khodorkovsky was corrupting a large segment of the Duma to prevent tax code changes such as taxes on windfall profits and closing offshore tax evasion vehicles. Khodorkovsky was arrested, Yukos was bankrupted and the company's assets were auctioned at below-market value, with the largest share acquired by the state company Rosneft.[63] The fate of Yukos was seen in the West as a sign of a broader shift of Russia towards a system of state capitalism.[64][65]

A study by Bank of Finland's Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT) in 2008 found that state intervention had made a positive impact on the corporate governance of many companies in Russia: the governance was better in companies with state control or with a stake held by the government.[66]

Putin was criticized in the West and also by Russian liberals for what many observers considered a wide-scale crackdown on media freedom in Russia. On 7 October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who exposed corruption in the Russian army and its conduct in Chechnya, was shot in the lobby of her apartment building. The death of Politkovskaya triggered an outcry in Western media, with accusations that, at best, Putin has failed to protect the country's new independent media.[67][68] When asked about the Politkovskaya murder in his interview with the German TV channel ARD, Putin said that her murder brings much more harm to the Russian authorities than her writing.[69] By 2012 the performers of the murder were arrested and named Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev as a possible clients.[70]

In 2007, "Dissenters' Marches" were organized by the opposition group The Other Russia,[71] led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov and national-Bolshevist leader Eduard Limonov. Following prior warnings, demonstrations in several Russian cities were met by police action, which included interfering with the travel of the protesters and the arrests of as many as 150 people who attempted to break through police lines.[72] The Dissenters' Marches have received little support among the Russian general public, according to polls.[73]

On 12 September 2007, Putin dissolved the government upon the request of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. Fradkov commented that it was to give the President a "free hand" in the run-up to the parliamentary election. Viktor Zubkov was appointed the new prime minister.[74]

In December 2007, United Russia won 64.24% of the popular vote in their run for State Duma according to election preliminary results.[75] United Russia's victory in December 2007 elections was seen by many as an indication of strong popular support of the then Russian leadership and its policies.[76][77]

In his last days in office Putin was reported to have taken a series of steps to re-align the regional bureaucracy to make the governors report to the prime minister rather than the president.[78][79] Putin's office explained that "the changes... bear a refining nature and do not affect the essential positions of the system. The key role in estimating the effectiveness of activity of regional authority still belongs to President of the Russian Federation."

Second Premiership (2008–2012)

Putin was barred from a third term by the Constitution. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected his successor. On 8 May 2008, only a day after handing the presidency to Medvedev, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia, maintaining his political dominance.[80]

The Great Recession hit the Russian economy especially hard, interrupting the flow of cheap Western credit and investments. This coincided with tension in relationships with the EU and the US following the 2008 South Ossetia war, in which Russia defeated NATO ally Georgia.

However, the large financial reserves, accumulated in the Stabilization Fund of Russia in the previous period of high oil prices, alongside the strong management helped the country to cope with the crisis and resume economic growth since mid-2009. The Russian government's anti-crisis measures have been praised by the World Bank, which said in its Russia Economic Report from November 2008: "prudent fiscal management and substantial financial reserves have protected Russia from deeper consequences of this external shock. The government's policy response so far—swift, comprehensive, and coordinated—has helped limit the impact."[81]

Putin has named the overcoming of consequences of the world economic crisis one of the two main achievements of his 2nd Premiership.[62] The other named achievement was the stabilisation of the size of Russia's population between 2008–2011 following the long period of demographic collapse started in the 1990s.[62]

At the United Russia Congress in Moscow on 24 September 2011, Medvedev officially proposed that Putin stand for the Presidency in 2012, an offer which Putin accepted. Given United Russia's near-total dominance of Russian politics, many observers believed that Putin was all but assured of a third term. The move was expected to see Medvedev stand on the United Russia ticket in the parliamentary elections in December, with a goal of becoming Prime Minister at the end of his presidential term.[82] During the 2012 presidential campaign, Putin published 7 articles to present his vision for the future.[83]

After the parliamentary elections on 4 December 2011, tens of thousands Russians engaged in protests against alleged electoral fraud, the largest protests in Putin's time; protesters criticized Putin and United Russia and demanded annulment of the election results.[84] However, those protests, organized by the leaders of the Russian "non-systemic opposition", sparked the fear of a colour revolution in society, and a number of "anti-Orange" counter-protests (the name alludes to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine) and rallies of Putin supporters were carried out, surpassing in scale the opposition protests.[85][86][87]

Third Presidential term (2012–present)

On 4 March 2012, Putin won the 2012 Russian presidential elections in the first round, with 63.6% of the vote.[53] While extraordinary measures were taken to make the elections transparent, including the usage of webcams on the vast majority of polling stations, the vote was criticized by Russian opposition and some international bodies for perceived irregularities.

Anti-Putin protests took place during and directly after the presidential campaign. The most notorious protest was 21 February Pussy Riot performance, and subsequent trial.[88] Also, an estimated 8,000–20,000 protesters gathered in Moscow on 6 May,[89][90] when eighty people were injured in confrontations with police,[91] and 450 were arrested, with another 120 arrests taking place the following day.[92]

Putin's presidency was inaugurated in the Kremlin on 7 May 2012. [93] On his first day as President, Putin issued 14 Presidential decrees, sometimes called in the media "May Decrees", including a lengthy one stating wide-ranging goals for the Russian economy. Other decrees concerned education, housing, skilled-labor training, relations with the European Union, the defense industry, inter-ethnic relations, and other policy areas dealt with in Putin's programme articles issued during the Presidential campaign.[94][95]

In 2012 and 2013, Putin and the United Russia party backed stricter legislation against the LGBT community, in Saint Petersburg, Archangelsk and Novosibirsk; a law against "homoxxual propaganda" (which prohibits such symbols as the rainbow flag as well as published works containing homoxxual content) was adopted by State Duma in June 2013.[96][97][98][99][100] Responding to international concerns about Russia's legislation, Putin asked critics to note the law was a "ban on the propaganda of pedophilia and homosexuality" and he stated that homosexual visitors to the 2014 Winter Olympics should "leave the children in peace" but denied there was any "professional, career or social discrimination" against homosexuals in Russia.[101]

Also in June 2013, Putin attended a televised rally of the All-Russia People's Front where he was elected head of the movement,[102] which was set up in 2011.[103] According to journalist Steve Rosenberg, the movement is intended to "reconnect the Kremlin to the Russian people" and one day, if necessary, replace the increasingly unpopular United Russia party that currently backs Putin.[104]

Domestic policies

Putin's domestic policies, especially early in his first presidency, were aimed at creating a vertical power structure. On 13 May 2000, he issued a decree putting the 89 federal subjects of Russia into seven administrative federal districts and appointed a presidential envoy responsible for each of those districts (whose official title is Plenipotentiary Representative)

According to Stephen White, Russia under the presidency of Putin made it clear that it had no intention of establishing a "second edition" of the American or British political system, but rather a system that was closer to Russia's own traditions and circumstances.[105] Putin's administration has often been described as a "sovereign democracy".[106] According to the proponents of that description, the government's actions and policies ought above all to enjoy popular support within Russia itself and not be determined from outside the country.[107][108]

In July 2000, according to a law proposed by him and approved by the Federal Assembly of Russia, Putin gained the right to dismiss heads of the 89 federal subjects (there are presently several fewer federal subjects in Russia than there were in 2000). In 2004, the direct election of those heads (usually called "governors") by popular vote was replaced with a system whereby they would be nominated by the President and approved or disapproved by regional legislatures.[109][110] This was seen by Putin as a necessary move to stop separatist tendencies and get rid of those governors who were connected with organised crime.[111] This and other government actions effected under Putin's presidency have been criticised by many independent Russian media outlets and Western commentators as anti-democratic.[112][113] In 2012, as proposed by Putin's successor Dmitry Medvedev, the direct election of governors was re-introduced.[114]

During his first term in office, Putin moved to curb the political ambitions of some of the Yeltsin-era oligarchs, resulting in the exile or imprisonment of such people as Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky; other oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich and Arkady Rotenberg[115] soon joined Putin's camp. Putin presided over an intensified fight with organised crime and terrorism that resulted in two times lower murder rates by 2011,[116] as well as significant reduction in the numbers of terrorist acts by the late 2000s (decade).[117]

Putin succeeded in codifying land law and tax law and promulgated new codes on labour, administrative, criminal, commercial and civil procedural law.[13] Under Medvedev's presidency, Putin's government implemented some key reforms in the area of state security, the Russian police reform and the Russian military reform.

Economic, industrial, and energy policies

Under the Putin administration from 2001 to 2007, the economy made real gains of an average 7% per year,[118] making it the 7th largest economy in the world in purchasing power. Russia's nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 6 fold, climbing from 22nd to 10th largest in the world. In 2007, Russia's GDP exceeded that of Russian SFSR in 1990, meaning it overcame the devastating consequences of the 1998 financial crisis and preceding recession in the 1990s.[10]

During Putin's eight years in office, industry grew substantially, as did production, construction, real incomes, credit, and the middle class.[8][10][11][119][120] Putin has also been praised for eliminating widespread barter and thus boosting the economy.[121] Inflation remained a problem however.[10]

In 2001, Putin obtained approval for a flat tax rate of 13%;[122][123] the corporate rate of tax was also reduced from 35 percent to 24 percent;[122] Small businesses also get better treatment. The old system with high tax rates has been replaced by a new system where companies can choose either a 6-percent tax on gross revenue or a 15-percent tax on profits.[122] The overall tax burden is lower in Russia than in most European countries.[124]

A central concept in Putin's economic thinking was the creation of so-called National champions, vertically integrated companies in strategic sectors that are expected not only to seek profit, but also to "advance the interests of the nation". Examples of such companies include Gazprom, Rosneft and United Aircraft Corporation.[125]

A fund for oil revenue allowed Russia to repay all of the Soviet Union's debts by 2005.[10] Payments from the fuel and energy sector accounted for nearly half of the federal budget's revenues. The large majority of Russia's exports are made up of raw materials and fertilizers,[10] although exports as a whole accounted for only 8.7% of the GDP in 2007, compared to 20% in 2000.[126]

After 18 years of trying, Russia joined the World Trade Organization on 22 August 2012. However, there were few immediate economic benefits evident from that WTO membership.[127]

Under Putin as President and Premier, most of the world's largest automotive companies opened plants in Russia, which Putin encouraged via tax incentives, as well as protectionist measures which discouraged imports.[128]

In 2005, Putin initiated an industry consolidation programme to bring the main aircraft producing companies under a single umbrella organization, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The aim was to optimize production lines and minimise losses.[129] The UAC is one of the so-called national champions and comparable to EADS in Europe.[130]

In a similar fashion, Putin created the United Shipbuilding Corporation in 2007, which led to the recovery of shipbuilding in Russia. Since 2006, much efforts were put into consolidation and development of the Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation, which led to the renewed construction of nuclear power plants in Russia. In 2007, the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation was established, aimed to boost the science and technology and high-tech industry in Russia.[131]

In the decade following 2000, energy in Russia helped transform the country, especially oil and gas energy. This transformation promoted Russia's well-being and international influence, and the country was frequently described in the media as an energy superpower.[14] Putin oversaw growing taxation of oil and gas exports which helped finance the budget, while the oil industry of Russia, production, and exports all significantly grew.

Putin sought to increase Russia's share of the European energy market by building submerged gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine and other countries which were often seen as non-reliable transit partners by Russia, especially following Russia-Ukraine gas disputes of the late 2000s (decade). Russia also undermined the rival pipeline project Nabucco by buying the Turkmen gas and redirecting it into Russian pipelines.

On the other hand Russia diversified its export markets by building the Trans-Siberian oil pipeline to the markets of China, Japan and Korea, as well as the Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok gas pipeline in the Russian Far East. Russia has also recently built several major oil and gas refineries, plants and ports. Additionally, Putin has presided over construction of major hydropower plants, such as the Bureya Dam and the Boguchany Dam, as well as the restoration of the nuclear industry of Russia, with some 1 trillion rubles ($42.7 billion) allocated from the federal budget to nuclear power and industry development before 2015.[132] A large number of nuclear power stations and units are currently being constructed by the state corporation Rosatom in Russia and abroad.

A construction program of floating nuclear power plants will provide power to Russian Arctic coastal cities and gas rigs, starting in 2012.[133][134] The Arctic policy of Russia also includes an offshore oilfield in the Pechora Sea is expected to start producing in early 2012, with the world's first ice-resistant oil platform and first offshore Arctic platform.[135] In August 2011 Rosneft, a Russian government-operated oil company, signed a deal with ExxonMobil for Arctic oil production.[136] "The scale of the investment is very large. It's scary to utter such huge figures" said Putin on signing the deal.[136]

Environmental policy

In 2004, President Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol treaty designed to reduce greenhouse gases.[137] However Russia did not face mandatory cuts, because the Kyoto Protocol limits emissions to a percentage increase or decrease from 1990 levels and Russia's greenhouse-gas emissions fell well below the 1990 baseline due to a drop in economic output after the breakup of the Soviet Union.[138]

Putin personally supervises and/or promotes a number of protection programmes for rare and endangered animals in Russia:

The Amur Tiger Programme[139]

The White Whale Programme[140]

The Polar Bear Programme[141]

The Snow Leopard Programme[142]

Religions policy

Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, defined by law as Russia's traditional religions and a part of Russia's "historical heritage"[143] enjoyed limited state support in the Putin era. The vast construction and restoration of churches, started in 1990s, continued under Putin, and the state allowed the teaching of religion in schools (parents are provided with a choice for their children to learn the basics of one of the traditional religions or secular ethics). His approach to religious policy has been characterised as one of support for religious freedoms, but also the attempt to unify different religions under the authority of the state.[144] In 2012, Putin was honored in Bethlehem and a street was named after him.[145]

Putin regularly attends the most important services of the Russian Orthodox Church on the main Orthodox Christian holidays. He established a good relationship with Patriarchs of the Russian Church, the late Alexy II of Moscow and the current Kirill of Moscow. As President, he took an active personal part in promoting the Act of Canonical Communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, signed 17 May 2007 that restored relations between the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia after the 80-year schism.[146]

Putin and United Russia enjoy high electoral support in the national republics of Russia, in particular in the Muslim-majority republics of Povolzhye and the North Caucasus.

Under Putin, the Hasidic FJCR became increasingly influential within the Jewish community, partly due to the influence of Federation-supporting businessmen mediated through their alliances with Putin, notably Lev Leviev and Roman Abramovich.[147][147][148] According to the JTA, Putin is popular amongst the Russian Jewish community, who see him as a force for stability. Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said Putin "paid great attention to the needs of our community and related to us with a deep respect."[149]

Military development

The resumption of long-distance flights of Russia's strategic bombers was followed by the announcement by Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov during his meeting with Putin on 5 December 2007, that 11 ships, including the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov, would take part in the first major navy sortie into the Mediterranean since Soviet times.[150] The sortie was to be backed up by 47 aircraft, including strategic bombers.[151]

While from the early 2000s (decade) Russia started pumping more money into its military and defence industry, it was only in 2008 that the full-scale Russian military reform began, aimed to modernize Russian Armed Forces and made them significantly more effective. The reform was largely carried by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during Medvedev's Presidency, under supervision of both Putin, as the Head of Government, and Medvedev, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces.

Key elements of the reform included reducing the armed forces to a strength of one million; reducing the number of officers; centralising officer training from 65 military schools into 10 'systemic' military training centres; creating a professional NCO corps; reducing the size of the central command; introducing more civilian logistics and auxiliary staff; elimination of cadre-strength formations; reorganising the reserves; reorganising the army into a brigade system; reorganising air forces into an air base system instead of regiments.[152]

The number of Russia's military districts was reduced to just 4. The term of draft service was reduced from two years to one, which put an end to the old harassment traditions in the army, since all conscripts became very close by draft age. The gradual transition to the majority professional army by the late 2010s was announced, and a large programme of supplying the Armed Forces with new military equipment and ships was started. The Russian Space Forces were replaced on 1 December 2011 with the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.

In spite of Putin's call for major investments in strategic nuclear weapons, these will fall well below the New START limits due to the retirement of aging systems.[153]

Putin has also sought to increase Russian military presence in the Arctic. In August 2007, a Russian expedition planted a flag on the seabed below the North Pole.[154][154] Russian submarines and troops have been increasing in the Arctic.[155][156]

Foreign policy

As of late 2013, Russian-American relations were at a low point.[157] The United States canceled a summit (for the first time since 1960), after Putin gave asylum to Edward Snowden, who had stolen NSA secrets.[157]

Washington regarded Russia as obstructionist and a spoiler regarding Syria, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. In turn, those nations look to Russia for protection against the United States.[157]

Europe needs Russian oil, but worries about interference in the affairs of Eastern Europe. Russia remains angry over the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. Central Asia sees Moscow as a former overlord, which is too powerful to ignore, even as countries assist American involvement in Afghanistan.[157]

In Asia, India has moved from a close ally of the Soviet Union to a partner of the United States with strong nuclear and commercial ties. Japan and Russia remain at odds over the ownership of the Kurile islands; this dispute has hindered cooperation for decades.[157] China has moved from a client state of Russia in the 1950s, to a bitter antagonist in the 1960s and 1970s, to a situation where its economic powerhouse sees Russia as a source of raw materials, as well as an ally in the United Nations.[157]

On the lighter side, Putin has won international support for sport in Russia. In 2007, he led a successful effort on behalf of Sochi (located along the Black Sea near the border between Georgia and Russia) for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics,[158] the first Winter Olympic Games to ever be hosted by Russia. Likewise, in 2008, the city of Kazan won the bid for the 2013 Summer Universiade, and on 2 December 2010 Russia won the right to host the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup, also for the first time in Russian history. In 2013, Putin stated that gay athletes would not face any discrimination at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.[159] President Barack Obama is not planning to attend the 2014 Winter Olympics,[160] joining other western leaders in the apparent symbolic boycott.[161]

Relations with NATO and its member nations

Under Putin, Russia's relationships with NATO and the U.S. have passed through several stages. When Putin first became President, the relations were cautious. After the 9/11 attacks when Putin quickly supported the U.S. in the War on Terror, the opportunity for partnership appeared.[162] However, the U.S. responded by further expansion of NATO to Russia's borders and by unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.[162] Since 2003, when Russia did not support the Iraq War and when Putin became ever more distant from the West in his internal and external policies, the relations continued to deteriorate. According to Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen, the narrative of the mainstream U.S. media, following that of the White House, became anti-Putin.[162] In an interview with Michael Stürmer, Putin was quoted saying that there were three questions which most concerned Russia and Eastern Europe: namely, the status of Kosovo, the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and American plans to build missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and suggested that all three were linked.[163] In Putin's view, concessions on one of these questions on the Western side might be met with concessions from Russia on another.[163] In a January 2007 interview, Putin said Russia is in favor of a democratic multipolar world and of strengthening the systems of international law.[164]

In February 2007, Putin criticized what he called the United States' monopolistic dominance in global relations, and "almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations". He said the result of it is that "no one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them. Of course such a policy stimulates an arms race."[165] This came to be known as the Munich Speech, and former NATO secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called the speech, "disappointing and not helpful."[166] The months following Putin's Munich Speech[165] were marked by tension and a surge in rhetoric on both sides of the Atlantic. Both Russian and American officials, however, denied the idea of a new Cold War.[167]

Putin publicly opposed plans for the U.S. missile shield in Europe, and presented President George W. Bush with a counterproposal on 7 June 2007 which was declined.[168] Russia suspended its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe on 11 December 2007.[169]

Vladimir Putin strongly opposed Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, warning supporters of that precedent that it would de facto destroy the whole system of international relations.[170][171][172]

Putin had friendly relations with former American President George W. Bush, and many European leaders. Putin's "cooler" and "more business-like" relationship with Germany's current Chancellor, Angela Merkel is often attributed to Merkel's upbringing in the former DDR, where Putin was stationed when he was a KGB agent.[173]

Relations between Russia and the United Kingdom deteriorated when the United Kingdom granted political asylum to Putin's former patron, oligarch Boris Berezovsky in 2003.[174] This deterioration was intensified by allegations that the British were spying and making secret payments to pro-democracy and human rights groups.[175] The end of 2006 brought more strained relations in the wake of the death by polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London.[176][177] In 2007, the crisis in relations continued with expulsion of four Russian envoys over Russia's refusal to extradite former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi to face charges in the alleged murder of Litvinenko.[174] Mirroring the British actions, Russia expelled UK diplomats and took other retaliatory steps.[174]

Relations with South and East Asia

In 2012, Putin wrote an article in the Hindu newspaper, saying that "The Declaration on Strategic Partnership between India and Russia signed in October 2000 became a truly historic step".[178][179] Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during Putin's 2012 visit to India: "President Putin is a valued friend of India and the original architect of the India-Russia strategic partnership".[180]

Putin's Russia maintains positive relations with other BRIC countries. The country has sought to strengthen ties especially with the People's Republic of China by signing the Treaty of Friendship as well as building the Trans-Siberian oil pipeline geared toward growing Chinese energy needs.[181] The mutual-security cooperation of the two countries and their central Asian neighbours is facilitated by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The announcement made during the SCO summit that Russia resumes on a permanent basis the long-distance patrol flights of its strategic bombers (suspended in 1992)[182][183] in the light of joint Russian-Chinese military exercises, first-ever in history held on Russian territory,[184] made some experts believe that Putin is inclined to set up an anti-NATO bloc or the Asian version of OPEC.[185] When presented with the suggestion that "Western observers are already likening the SCO to a military organisation that would stand in opposition to NATO", Putin answered that "this kind of comparison is inappropriate in both form and substance".[182]

Relations with Middle Eastern and North African countries

On 16 October 2007 Putin visited Iran to participate in the Second Caspian Summit in Tehran,[186][187] where he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[188][189] This was the first visit of a Soviet or Russian leader to Iran since Joseph Stalin's participation in the Tehran Conference in 1943, and thus marked a significant event in Iran-Russia relations.[190] At a press conference after the summit Putin said that "all our (Caspian) states have the right to develop their peaceful nuclear programmes without any restrictions".[191]

Subsequently, under Medvedev's presidency, Iran-Russia relations were uneven: Russia did not fulfill the contract of selling to Iran the S-300, one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently existing. However, Russian specialists completed the construction of Iran and the Middle East's first civilian nuclear power facility, the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, and Russia has continuously opposed the imposition of economic sanctions on Iran by the U.S. and the EU, as well as warning against a military attack on Iran. Putin was quoted as describing Iran as a "partner",[163] though he expressed concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme.[163]

In April 2008, Putin became the first Russian President who visited Libya.[192] Putin condemned the foreign military intervention of Libya, he called UN resolution as "defective and flawed," and added "It allows everything. It resembles medieval calls for crusades."[193][194] Upon the death of Muammar Gaddafi, Putin called it as "planned murder" by the US, saying: "They showed to the whole world how he (Gaddafi) was killed," and "There was blood all over. Is that what they call a democracy?"[195][196]

Regarding Syria, from 2000 to 2010 Russia sold around $1.5 billion worth of arms to that country, making Damascus Moscow's seventh-largest client.[197] During the Syrian civil war, Russia threatened to veto any sanctions against the Syrian government,[198] and continued to supply arms to the regime.

Putin opposed any foreign intervention. In June 2012, in Paris, he rejected the statement of French President Francois Hollande who called on Bashar Al-Assad to step down. Putin echoed the argument of the Assad regime that anti-regime '’militants'’ were responsible for much of the bloodshed. He also talked about previous NATO interventions and their results, and asked "What is happening in Libya, in Iraq? Did they become safer? Where are they heading? Nobody has an answer."[199]

On 11 September 2013, an opinion, written by Putin, was published in the New York Times regarding international events related to the United States, Russia and Syria.[200] Putin subsequently helped to arrange for Syria to disarm itself of chemical weapons.[201]

Relations with post-Soviet states

A series of the so-called color revolutions in the post-Soviet states, namely the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005, led to frictions in the relations of those countries with Russia. In December 2004, Putin criticised the Rose and Orange Revolution, according to him: "If you have permanent revolutions you risk plunging the post-Soviet space into endless conflict".[202]

A number of economic disputes erupted between Russia and some neighbours, such as the Russian import ban of Georgian wine. And in some cases, such as the Russia–Ukraine gas disputes, the economic conflicts affected other European countries, for example when a January 2009 gas dispute with Ukraine led state-controlled Russian company Gazprom to halt its deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine,[203] which left a number of European states, to which Ukraine transits Russian gas, to have serious shortages of natural gas in January 2009.[203]

The plans of Georgia and Ukraine to become members of NATO have caused some tensions between Russia and those states. In 2010, Ukraine did abandon these plans.[204] Putin allegedly declared at a NATO-Russia summit in 2008 that if Ukraine joined NATO Russia could contend to annex the Ukrainian East and Crimea.[205] In public Putin has stated that Russia has no intention of annexing any country.[202]

In August 2008, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili attempted to restore control over the breakaway South Ossetia. However, the Georgian military was soon defeated in the resulting 2008 South Ossetia War after regular Russian forces entered South Ossetia and then Georgia proper, and also opened a second front in the other Georgian breakaway province of Abkhazia together with Abkhazian forces.[206][207] During this conflict, according to high level French diplomat Jean-David Levitte, Putin intended to depose the Georgian President and declared: "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls".[208]

The President of Ukraine elected during the Orange Revolution, Viktor Yushchenko, was succeeded in 2010 by Viktor Yanukovych, which led to improved relations with Russia.[209][210] The President of Kyrgyzstan since 2009, Almazbek Atambayev, wants a "common future" with its neighbours and Russia.[211]

Despite existing or past tensions between Russia and most of the post-Soviet states, Putin has followed the policy of Eurasian integration. Putin endorsed the idea of a Eurasian Union in 2011,[212][213][214][215] (the concept was proposed by the President of Kazakhstan in 1994).[216] On 18 November 2011, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement, setting a target of establishing the Eurasian Union by 2015.[217]

Relations with Australia, Latin America, and others

Putin and his successor Medvedev enjoyed warm relations with the late Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. Much of this has been through the sale of military equipment; since 2005, Venezuela has purchased more than $4 billion worth of arms from Russia.[218] In September 2008, Russia sent Tupolev Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela to carry out training flights.[219] In November 2008, both countries held a joint naval exercise in the Caribbean.[220] Earlier in 2000, Putin had re-established stronger ties with Fidel Castro's Cuba.

In September 2007, Putin visited Indonesia and in doing so became the first Russian leader to visit the country in more than 50 years.[221] In the same month, Putin also attended the APEC meeting held in Sydney where he met with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and signed a uranium trade deal. This was the first visit by a Russian president to Australia.

Speeches

Addresses to the Federal Assembly

During his terms in office Putin has made eight annual addresses to the Federal Assembly of Russia,[222] speaking on the situation in Russia and on guidelines of the internal and foreign policy of the State (as prescribed in Article 84 of the Constitution[223]).

Speeches abroad

One of the most important and widely publicized speeches of Putin made abroad was made on 10 February 2007 on the Munich Conference on Security Policy, and hence became known as the Munich speech. It was dubbed by the press to be "the turning point of the Russian foreign policy", and western observers called it the most tough speech from a leader of Russia since the time of the Cold War.[224] The speech was also seen as been made by Putin to openly assert the new (old) role of Russia in the international politics, the role close to that of the Soviet Union and the return to which role is seen as one of the achievements of Putin's Presidency.[224]

In the Munich speech Putin called for upholding the principle "security for everyone is security for all", criticized the policies of the United States and NATO, condemned the unipolar model of international relations as flawed and lacking moral basis, condemned the "hypocrisy" of countries trying to teach democracy to Russia, condemned the domination of hard power and enforcement by the U.S. of the Western norms and laws to other countries bypassing international law and substitution of the United Nations by NATO or the EU.[224] 

Putin also called for a stop to the militarization of space and questioned the plans to deploy American missile defense in Europe as threatening strategic nuclear balance and spurring a new arms race. He also claimed that the countries dubbed as rogue states by the West were not going to be capable of threatening Europe or the U.S. with ballistic missiles in the foreseeable future.[224] His speech was criticized by some attendant delegates at the conference, including former NATO secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer who called it "disappointing and not helpful."[166]

Outdoor speeches

Notable Putin's outdoor speeches include his addresses during the Victory Day Moscow Military Parades one every 9 May in the years between 2000 and 2007. Under Putin's presidency and premiership, the old Soviet tradition of 9 May Parades, which had been in decline in 1990s, was gradually restored in full grandeur. Since the 2008 Moscow Victory Day Parade the armoured fighting vehicles resumed regular taking part in the Red Square parades. Putin often used the Victory Day occasion to discuss Russia's military development and Russia's security and foreign affairs. For example, he said on 9 May 2007 that "threats are not becoming fewer but are only transforming and changing their appearance. These new threats, just as under the Third Reich, show the same contempt for human life and the same aspiration to establish an exclusive dictate over the world."[226]

During his 2012 presidential campaign Putin made a single outdoor public speech at the 100,000-strong rally of his supporters in the Luzhniki Stadium on 23 February, Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day.[87] In the speech he called not to betray the Motherland, but to love her, to unite around Russia and to work together for the good, to overcome the existing problems.[227] He said that the foreign interference into Russian affairs should not be allowed, that Russia has its own free will. He compared the political situation at the moment (when fears were spread in the Russian society that 2011–2012 Russian protests could instigate a color revolution directed from abroad) with the First Fatherland War of 1812, reminding that its 200th anniversary and the anniversary of the Battle of Borodino would be celebrated in 2012.Putin cited Lermontov's poem Borodino and ended the speech with Vyacheslav Molotov's famous Great Patriotic War slogan "The Victory Shall Be Ours!" ("Победа будет за нами!").[87][227]

On the post-election celebration rally, while making an acceptance speech, Putin was for the first time ever seen with tears in his eyes (later he explained that "it was windy"). He said to a 110,000-strong audience: "I told you we would win and we won!"[86][228]

Public image

Ratings, polls and assessments

According to public opinion surveys, Putin's approval rating was 81% in June 2007, and the highest of any leader in the world.[229][230] In January 2013, his approval rating fell to 62%, the lowest point since 2000 and a ten-point drop over two years.[231] Observers see Putin's high approval ratings as a consequence of the significant improvements in living standards and Russia's reassertion of itself on the world scene that occurred during his tenure as President.[232][233] One analysis attributed Putin's popularity, in part, to state-owned or state-controlled television.[234] A 2005 survey showed that three times as many Russians felt the country was "more democratic" under Putin than it was during the Yeltsin or Gorbachev years, and the same proportion thought human rights were better under Putin than Yeltsin.[234]

Putin was Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2007.[235] In April 2008, Putin was put on the Time 100 most influential people in the world list.[236]

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev credited Putin with having "pulled Russia out of chaos",[237] but has also criticized Putin for restricting press freedom and for seeking a third term in the presidential elections. Putin's press spokesman responded to this criticism by saying Gorbachev "was basically responsible for the dissolution of his country".[238]

Criticism of Putin has been widespread especially over the internet in Russia,[239] and it is said that the Russian youth organisations finance a full "network" of pro-government bloggers.[240] In the U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks in late 2010, American diplomats said Putin's Russia had become "a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a virtual mafia state."[241][242] Putin called it "slanderous".[243]

By western commentators and the Russian opposition, Putin has been described as a dictator.[244][245] Putin biographer Masha Gessen has stated that "Putin is a dictator," comparing him to Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.[246][247] Former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband once described Putin as a "ruthless dictator" whose "days are numbered."[248] U.S. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Putin "a real threat to the stability and peace of the world."[249]

In the fall of 2011, the anti-Putin opposition movement in Russia became more visible, with street protests against allegedly falsified parliamentary elections (in favor of Putin's party, United Russia) cropping up across major Russian cities. Following Putin's re-election in March 2012, the movement struggled to redefine its new course of action.[250]

Outdoorsiness, singing, painting, songs about him, brands, Putinisms

Putin has an outdoor, sporty, 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.[251] For example, in 2007, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge photograph of a bare-chested Putin vacationing in the Siberian mountains under the headline: "Be Like Putin."[252]

Photo ops during his various adventures are part of a public relations approach that, according to Wired, "deliberately cultivates the macho, take-charge superhero image".[253] Some of the activities have been criticised for involving deception or being completely staged.

Notable examples of Putin's macho adventures include:[254] flying military jets,[254] demonstrating his martial art skills,[254] riding horses, rafting, fishing and swimming in a cold Siberian river (doing all that mostly bare-chested),[252][255] descending in a deepwater submersible,[256] tranquilizing tigers with a tranquiliser gun,[252][257] tranquilizing polar bears,[258] riding a motorbike,[254][259] co-piloting a firefighting plane to dump water on a raging fire,[253][254] shooting darts at whales from a crossbow for eco-tracking,[254][260] driving a race car,[254][261] scuba diving at an archaeological site,[262][263] attempting to lead endangered cranes in a motorized hang glider,[264] and catching big fish.[265][266]

On 11 December 2010, at a concert organized for a children's charity in Saint Petersburg, Putin sang Blueberry Hill accompanying himself on the piano. The concert was attended by various Hollywood and European stars such as Kevin Costner, Sharon Stone, Alain Delon, and Gérard Depardieu.[267][268] At the same event (and others) Putin played a patriotic song from his favourite spy movie "Щит и меч", The Shield and the Sword.[268]

Putin's painting "Узор на заиндевевшем окне" (A Pattern on a Hoarfrost-Encrusted Window), which he had painted during the Christmas Fair on 26 December 2008, became the top lot at the charity auction in Saint Petersburg and sold for 37 million rubles.[269] The creation of the painting coincided with the 2009 Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, which left a number of European states without Russian gas and amid January frosts.[203]

There are a large number of songs about Putin.[270] Some of the more popular include:

[I Want] A Man Like Putin by Singing Together[271]

Horoscope (Putin, Don't Piss!) by Uma2rman[272]

VVP by a Tajik singer Tolibjon Kurbankhanov (Толибджон Курбанханов)[273][274]

Our Madhouse is Voting for Putin by Working Faculty.

Putin's name and image are widely used in advertisement and product branding.[253] Among the Putin-branded products are Putinka vodka, the PuTin brand of canned food, the Gorbusha Putina caviar and a collection of T-shirts with his image.[275]

Putin also is a subject of Russian jokes and chastushki, such as the popular "[Before Putin] There Was No Orgasm" featured in the comedy film The Day of Elections.[276] There is a meta-joke that, since the coming of Putin to power, all the classic jokes about a smart yet rude boy called Вовочка (Vovochka, diminutive from Vladimir) have suddenly become political jokes.

Putin features in the colouring book for children Vova and Dima (presented on his 59th birthday),[277] where he and Dmitry Medvedev are drawn as good-behaving little boys, and in the Superputin online comics series, where Putin and Medvedev are portrayed first as superheroes,[253] and then as a troll and an orc in the World of Warcraft.[278]

Vladimir Putin was portrayed by internet personality Nice Peter in his YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, in Season 2's finale episode, "Rasputin vs. Stalin" (aired on 22 April 2013).[279]

A Russian movie called A Kiss not for Press was premiered in 2008 on DVD. The movie is said to be based on biography of Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila.[280]

Putin has produced a large number of popular aphorisms and catch-phrases, known as putinisms.[282] Many of them were first made during his annual Q&A conferences, where Putin answered questions from journalists and other people in the studio, as well as from Russians throughout the country, who either phoned in or spoke from studios and outdoor sites across Russia. Putin is known for his often tough and sharp language.[282] The examples of most popular putinisms include:[283]

To bump off in a toilet. Made in 1999, when he promised to destroy terrorists wherever they were found, including in toilets.[283][284]

She sank. Curt and self-evident answer to a question from Larry King in 2000 asking what happened to the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk.[283]

Ploughed like a slave on a galley. This is how Putin described his work as President of Russia from 2000 to 2008 during a Q&A conference in 2008.[282]

Ears of a dead ass. According to Putin, that was what Latvia would receive instead of the land claimed by Latvia in a territorial dispute.[282]

At the very least, a state leader should have a head. Putin's response to Hillary Clinton's claim that Putin has no soul. He recommended that international relations be built without emotion and instead on the basis of the fundamental interests of the states involved.[283]

Shearing a pig- In 2013, Putin responded to complaints that he was harboring whistleblower Edward Snowden, saying that he does not wish to get involved in this issue because "it's like shearing a pig – lots of screams but little wool". (визгу много, шерсти мало).[285]

Personal life

Family

On 28 July 1983 Putin married Kaliningrad-born Lyudmila Shkrebneva, at that time an undergraduate student of the Spanish branch of the Philology Department of the Leningrad State University and a former Aeroflot flight attendant. They lived together in Germany from 1985 to 1990. During this time, according to BND archives, a German spy befriended Putina, who said that Putin beat her and had love affairs.[286] When the couple left Germany in 1990 it was rumoured that Putin left behind an illegitimate child.[286]

Putina was rarely seen with President Putin[287][288] and there were rumours, according to the Daily Mail and other newspapers, that the couple separated.[287][288][289] Putin has been linked by newspapers with other women, including gymnast Alina Kabayeva[287][288] and ex-spy Anna Chapman.[289][290] These rumours have been denied.[291][292] Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, announced on 6 June 2013, that their marriage was over, ending years of speculation about their relationship. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no official divorce had been drawn up yet, and he did not know when it would be, but he attached little importance to the formality.[293][294]

Putin and his wife have two daughters, Mariya Putina (born 28 April 1985 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) and Yekaterina Putina (born 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany). The daughters grew up in East Germany[295] and attended the German School in Moscow until his appointment as Prime Minister. After that they studied international economics at the Finance Academy in Moscow, although it was not officially reported due to security reasons. According to the Daily Mail, their photographs have never been published by the Russian media, and no family portrait has ever been issued.[289] According to an article in the newspaper De Pers, Mariya is married to the Dutchman Jorrit Faassen.[296][297] Today they live in Voorschoten, Netherlands.[298]

One of Vladimir Putin's relatives is Viktor Medvedchuk – controversial Ukrainian business oligarch influential until the 2004 Orange Revolution. Putin became the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter Darina in 2004.[299][300] The two maintain regular relations since,[300][301] with their meetings sometimes covered by the Russian state-controlled TV channels.[302]

Personal wealth and residences

Figures released during the legislative election of 2007 put Putin's wealth at approximately 3.7 million rubles ($150,000) in bank accounts, a private 77.4-square-meter (833 sq ft) apartment in Saint Petersburg, 260 shares of Bank Saint Petersburg (with a December 2007 market price $5.36 per share[303]) and two 1960s-era Volga M21 cars that he inherited from his father and does not register for on-road use. In 2012 Putin reported an income of 3.6 million rubles ($113,000). This has led opponents, such as politician Boris Nemtsov, to question how Putin can afford certain possessions, such as his 11 luxury watches worth an estimated $700,000.[304]

Putin's purported 2006 income totalled 2 million rubles (approximately $80,000).[306] According to the data Putin did not make it into the 100 wealthiest Duma candidates of his own United Russia party.[307]

Unconfirmed claims by some Russian opposition politicians and journalists allege that Putin secretly possesses a large fortune (as much as $70 billion[308]) via successive ownership of stakes in a number of Russian companies.[309][310] Nina L. Khrushcheva of the The New School estimates his net worth to be between $40–70 billion.[311] Asked at a press conference on 14 February 2008 whether he was the richest person in Europe, as some newspapers claimed; and if so, to state the source of his wealth, Putin said "This is plain chatter, not worthy discussion, plain bosh. They have picked this in their noses and have smeared this across their pieces of paper. This is how I view this."[312]

Not long after he returned from his KGB service in Dresden, East Germany Putin had built a dacha in Solovyovka on the eastern shore of Lake Komsomolskoye on the Karelian Isthmus in Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast, near St. Petersburg. The dacha had burned down in 1996. Putin built a new one identical to the original and was joined by a group of seven friends who built dachas beside his. In the fall of 1996, the group formally registered their fraternity as co-operative society, calling it Ozero (Lake) and turning it into a gated community.[313]

As President and then Prime-Minister, apart from the Moscow Kremlin and the White House, Putin has used numerous official residences throughout the country. In August 2012 Nemtsov listed 20 villas and palaces, 9 of which were built during Putin's 12 years in power. This compares to the President of the United States' 2 official residences.[314] Some of the residences include: Gorki-9 near Moscow, Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, Dolgiye Borody in Novgorod Oblast, Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Oblast and Riviera in Sochi (the latter two were left for Putin when he was Prime-Minister in 2008–2012, others were used by Dmitry Medvedev at that period).[315] Furthermore, a massive Italianate-style mansion costing an alleged USD 1 billion[305] and dubbed "Putin's Palace" is under construction near the Black Sea village of Praskoveevka. The mansion, built on government land and sporting 3 helipads, a private road paid for from state funds and guarded by officials wearing uniforms of the official Kremlin guard service, is said to have been built for Putin's private use. In 2012 Sergei Kolesnikov, a former business associate of Putin's, told the BBC's Newsnight programme, that he had been ordered by deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin, to oversee the building of it.[316]

Languages

Apart from Russian, Putin speaks fluent German. His family used to speak German at home as well.[317] After becoming President he was reported to be taking English lessons and could be seen conversing directly with Bush and native speakers of English in informal situations, but he continues to use interpreters for formal talks. Putin spoke English in public for the first time during the state dinner in Buckingham Palace in 2003 saying but a few phrases while delivering his condolences to Queen Elizabeth II on the death of her mother.[318] In an interview in 2013, the Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov revealed that he and Putin sometimes conversed in Swedish.[319]

Religion

Putin's father was "a model communist, genuinely believing in its ideals while trying to put them into practice in his own life". With this dedication he became secretary of the Party cell in his workshop and then after taking night classes joined the factory's Party bureau.[320] Though his father was a "militant atheist",[321] Putin's mother "was a devoted Orthodox believer". Though she kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly, despite the government's persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church at that time. She ensured that Putin was secretly christened as a baby and she regularly took him to services. His father knew of this but turned a blind eye.[320]

According to Putin's own statements, his religious awakening followed the serious car crash of his wife in 1993, and was deepened by a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996.[321] Right before an official visit to Israel his mother gave him his baptismal cross telling him to get it blessed "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since."[320] When asked whether he believes in God during his interview with Time, he responded saying: "...There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody's consumption because that would look like self-advertising or a political striptease."[322]

Martial arts

One of Putin's favorite sports is the martial art of judo. Putin began training in sambo (a martial art that originated in the Soviet Union) at the age of 14, before switching to judo, which he continues to practice today.[323] Putin won competitions in his hometown of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), including the senior championships of Leningrad in both sambo and judo. He is the President of the Yawara Dojo, the same Saint Petersburg dojo he practiced at when young. 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 (2004).[324]

Though he is not the first world leader to practice judo, Putin is the first leader to move forward into the advanced levels. Currently, Putin holds a 6th dan (red/white belt)[325] and is best known for his Harai Goshi (sweeping hip throw). Putin earned Master of Sports (Soviet and Russian sport title) in judo in 1975 and in sambo in 1973. At a state visit to Japan, Putin was invited to the Kodokan Institute, the judo headquarters, where he showed different judo techniques to the students and Japanese officials.

Putin also holds a 6th dan black belt in Kyokushin kaikan karate. He was presented the black belt in December 2009 by Japanese champion Kyokushin Karate-Do master Hatsuo Royama.[326]

In 2013, Putin re-introduced the GTO physical fitness program to Russia[327] with the support of Steven Seagal.[328][329]

Other sports

Putin often is seen on outdoor activities with Dmitry Medvedev, promoting sports and healthy way of life among Russians: they were seen alpine skiing in Krasnaya Polyana,[330] playing badminton, cycling and fishing.[331] Putin also started to learn ice skating and playing ice hockey after he promised to do so on a meeting with the Russia men's national junior ice hockey team who had won the 2011 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.[332] Putin also enjoys watching football and supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, the main team of his native city.[333]

Pets

Putin owns a female black Labrador Retriever named Koni, given as a gift in 2000 by General of the Army and Russia's Minister of Emergency Situations Sergey Shoigu. Koni is often seen at Putin's side and has been known to accompany him into staff meetings and greet world leaders. In fact, when Putin first met Angela Merkel, he brought Koni along knowing full well that Merkel had a fear of dogs, having been bitten by one as a child.[334] In 2003 Koni gave birth to eight pups which were later given as presents to Russian citizens, politicians and foreign ambassadors.[335] Koni gained additional fame in 2004 when the largest Russian publisher of children's books published a book entitled Connie's Stories.[336] In 2008 Koni became the first recipient of a GLONASS-enabled pet collar to highlight the progress of the Russian global navigation satellite system.[337]

In 2010 Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov gave Putin a Karakachan dog who was then named Buffy according to a suggestion by a five-year old boy from Moscow, Dima Sokolov.[338]

Recognition

In September 2006, France's president Jacques Chirac awarded Vladimir Putin the Grand-Croix (Grand Cross) of the Légion d'honneur, the highest French decoration, to celebrate his contribution to the friendship between the two countries. This decoration is usually awarded to the heads of state considered very close to France.[339]

In 2007, Putin was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

On 12 February 2007 Saudi King Abdullah awarded Putin the King Abdul Aziz Award, Saudi Arabia's top civilian decoration.[340]

On 10 September 2007 UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan awarded Putin the Order of Zayed, the UAE's top civil decoration.[341]

In December 2007 Putin was named Person of the Year by Expert magazine, an influential and respected Russian business weekly.[342]

On 5 October 2008 the central street of Grozny, the capital of Russia's Republic of Chechnya, was renamed from the Victory Avenue to the Vladimir Putin Avenue, as ordered by the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.[343]

In February 2011 the parliament of Kyrgyzstan named a peak in Tian Shan mountains Vladimir Putin Peak.[344]

On 15 November 2011 the China International Peace Research Center awarded the Confucius Peace Prize to Putin, citing as reason Putin's opposition to NATO's Libya bombing in 2011 while also paying tribute to his decision to go to war in Chechnya in 1999.[345] According to the committee, Putin's "Iron hand and toughness revealed in this war impressed the Russians a lot, and he was regarded to be capable of bringing safety and stability to Russia".[346]

In 2011, the University of Belgrade awarded Putin an honorary doctorate.[347]

References

1.  Hale, Henry E.; Timothy J. Colton (8 September 2009)."Russians and the Putin-Medvedev "Tandemocracy": A Survey-Based Portrait of the 2007–08 Election Season". The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research(Seattle, WA: University of Washington). Retrieved 15 March 2012.
2.  Vasilyeva, Natallya. "Putin claims to support term limits as he readies to take helm for 3rd time", China Post (12 April 2012).
3.  "Putin Hails Vote Victory, Opponents Cry Foul". RIA Novosti. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
4.  "Elections in Russia: World Awaits for Putin to Reclaim the Kremlin". The World Reporter. March 2012. Retrieved March 2012.
5.  Treisman, D. "Is Russia's Experiment with Democracy Over?". UCLA International Institute. Retrieved 31 December 2007.
6.  Democracy Index 2011,http://www.sida.se/Global/About%20Sida/Så%20arbetar%20vi/EIU_Democracy_Index_Dec2011.pdf
7.   Guriev, Sergei; Tsyvinski, Aleh (2010). "Challenges Facing the Russian Economy after the Crisis". In Anders Åslund, Sergei Guriev, Andrew C. Kuchins. Russia After the Global Economic Crisis. Peterson Institute for International Economics; Centre for Strategic and International Studies; New Economic School. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9780881324976.
8.   "Russians weigh Putin's protégé". Moscow. Associated Press. 3 May 2008. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
9.  of Russia from 1992 to 2007 International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 12 May 2008
10.   c d e f "Russia's economy under Vladimir Putin: achievements and failures". RIA Novosti. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
11.   Putin's Economy – Eight Years On. Russia Profile, 15 August 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2008
12.  "The Putin Paradox". Americanprogress.org. 24 June 2004. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
13.   Sharlet, Robert (2005). "In Search of the Rule of Law". In White, Gitelman, Sakwa. Developments in Russian Politics 6. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3522-0.
14.   Russia, China in Deal On Refinery, Not Gas by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen. The Wall Street Journal, 22 September 2010
15.  ПОСТУПЛЕНИЕ ИНОСТРАННЫХ ИНВЕСТИЦИЙ ПО ТИПАМ Rosstat
16.  "Forbes ranks Putin world’s most powerful person, downs Obama". Russia Today. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
17.  Biography at the Russia's Prime Minister web site at theWayback Machine (archived May 14, 2010)[dead link], in Russian
18.   First Person. trans. Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. PublicAffairs. 2000. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-58648-018-9. |coauthors= requires|author= (help)
19.  First Person An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin The New York Times, 2000
20.  Putin's Obscure Path From KGB to Kremlin Los Angeles Times, 19 March 2000
21.  Portrait of the Young Vladimir Putin Newsweek and the Daily Beast, 20 February 2012
22.  (Sakwa 2008, p. 2)
23.  "Prime Minister". Russia.rin.ru. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
24.  theme: Russian: «Принцип наиболее благоприятствуемой нации»Выпускники за 1975 год at the Wayback Machine(archived April 2, 2012). Saint Petersburg State University's website. ("The principle of most favored nation").
25.  Mehdi, Ahmed (6 May 2012). "Putin's Gazprom Problem".Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
26.  Владимир Путин. От Первого Лица. Chapter 6
27.   c d Pribylovsky, Vladimir (2010). "Valdimir Putin".Власть-2010 (60 биографий) (in Russian). Moscow: Panorama. pp. 132–139. ISBN 978-5-94420-038-9.
28.  (Sakwa 2008, pp. 8–9)
29.   Hoffman, David (30 January 2000). "Putin's Career Rooted in Russia's KGB". The Washington Post.
30.  "Putin set to visit Dresden, the place of his work as a KGB spy, to tend relations with Germany". International Herald Tribune. 9 October 2006.
31.   Sakwa, Richard (2007). Putin : Russia's Choice (2nd ed. ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 9780415407656. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
32.  R. Sakwa Putin: Russia's Choice, pp. 10–11
33.  R. Sakwa Putin: Russia's Choice, p. 11
34.  Archived February 21, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
35.  Kovalev, Vladimir (23 July 2004). "Uproar at Honor For Putin".The Saint Petersburg Times.
36.  Hoffman, David (30 January 2000). "Putin's Career Rooted in Russia's KGB". The Washington Post.
37.  Putin's Name Surfaces in German Probe at the Wayback Machine (archived September 27, 2007) by Catherine Belton
38.  Walsh, Nick Paton (29 February 2004). "The Man Who Wasn't There". The Observer.
39.   "Владимир Путин: от ассистента Собчака до и.о. премьера" (in Russian). GAZETA.RU.
40.  "ПУТИН — КАНДИДАТ НАУК" (in Russian). zavtra.ru. 24 May 2000.[dead link]
41.  Gustafson, Thane. Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia, p. 246 (Harvard University Press, 2012).
42.   "It All Boils Down to Plagiarism". Cdi.org. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
43.   Maxim Shishkin, Dmitry Butrin; Mikhail Shevchuk. "The President as Candidate". Kommersant. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
44.  The Half-Decay Products (in Russian) by Oleg Odnokolenko. Itogi, #47(545), 2 January 2007.
45.  "Text of Yeltsin's speech in English". BBC News. 9 August 1999. Retrieved 31 May 2007.
46.  Yeltsin redraws political map BBC, 10 August 1999
47.  "Yeltsin's man wins approval". BBC News. 16 August 1999. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
48.  Richard Sakwa Putin: Russia's choice, 2008. p. 20.
49.  Political groups and parties: Unity at the Wayback Machine(archived July 2, 2001) Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt
50.  УКАЗ от 31 декабря 1999 г. № 1763 О ГАРАНТИЯХ ПРЕЗИДЕНТУ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ, ПРЕКРАТИВШЕМУ ИСПОЛНЕНИЕ СВОИХ ПОЛНОМОЧИЙ, И ЧЛЕНАМ ЕГО СЕМЬИ. Rossiyskaya Gazeta
51.  Александр Колесниченко. ""Развращение" первого лица. Госдума не решилась покуситься на неприкосновенность экс-президента". Newizv.ru. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
52.  Ignatius, Adi. Person of the Year 2007: A Tsar Is Born, Time, page 4 (19 December 2007). Retrieved 19 November 2009.
53.   c History of Presidential Elections in Russia: InfographicsRIAN
54.   Spectre of Kursk haunts Putin, BBC News, 12 August 2001
55.  Putin: Russia's Choice, By Richard Sakwa, (Routledge, 2008) page 143-150
56.  Playing Russian Roulette: Putin in search of good governance, by Andre Mommen, in Good Governance in the Era of Global Neoliberalism: Conflict and Depolitisation in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, By Jolle Demmers, Alex E. Fernández Jilberto, Barbara Hogenboom (Routledge, 2004)
57.  Moscow siege leaves dark memories, BBC News, 16 December 2002
58.  "Can Grozny be groovy?". The Independent. 6 March 2007. Archived from the original on 28 March 2007.
59.  "Human Rights Watch Reports, on human rights abuses in Chechnya". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the originalon 21 November 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
60.  Russia Factbook Central Intelligence Agency
61.  "The challenges of the Medvedev era". BOFIT Online (Bank of Finland). 24 June 2008. ISSN 1456-811X. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
62.   c Путин очертил "дорожную карту" третьего срока BBC
63.  How to Steal Legally The Moscow Times, 15 February 2008 (issue 3843, page 8).
64.  Putin’s Gamble. Where Russia is headed[dead link] byNikolas Gvosdev, nationalreview.com, 5 November 2003.
65.  Putin's Kremlin Asserting More Control of Economy. Yukos Case Reflects Shift on Owning Assets, Notably in Energy byPeter Baker, The Washington Post, 9 July 2004.
66.  Andrei Yakovlev State-business relations and improvement of corporate governance in Russia Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition, 29 December 2008
67.  "Putin's Russia failed to protect this brave woman – Joan Smith". The Independent. 9 October 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
68.  Anna Politkovskaya, Prominent Russian Journalist, Putin Critic and Human Rights Activist, Murdered in Moscow, Democracy Now
69.  Answers on questions asked during interview to ARD TV channel (Germany), Dresden, 10 October 2006
70.  "The accused of murder of Anna Politkovskaya name possible clients" (in Russian). Information Telegraph Agency of Russia. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
71.  Lee, Steven (10 March 2007). "Kasparov, Building Opposition to Putin". The New York Times (Russia). Retrieved 2 March 2010.
72.  "Garry Kasparov jailed over rally". BBC News. 24 November 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
73.  VCIOM: Dissenters' Marches Do Not Interest Russians, Regnum.ru, 3 July 2007
74.  "Putin Dissolves Government, Nominates Viktor Zubkov as New Prime Minister". Fox News Channel. 12 September 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
75.  Election Preliminary Results for United Russia, 4 December 2007, Rbc.ru
76.  Russians Voted In Favour of Putin, 4 December 2007,Izvestia
77.  Assenters' March, 3 December 2007, Izvestia
78.  Будущий премьер Путин намерен лично контролировать губернаторов NEWSru.com 30 April 2008.
79.  Губернаторов начальник. Будущий премьер намерен лично контролировать региональных руководителей (The chief of governors. The future premier intends to personally check regional leaders.) Nezavisimaya gazeta 30 April 2008.
80.  Putin Is Approved as Prime Minister
81.  "Russian Economic Reports". World Bank. 10 November 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
82.  "Russia's Putin set to return as president in 2012". BBC News. 24 September 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
83.  Paul Bummer. "7 статей и джек-пот: Путин завершил серию публикаций". Neprussia.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
84.  Russian election protests – follow live updates, The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2011
85.  Как митинг на Поклонной собрал около 140 000 человекpolitonline.ru (Russian)
86.   ‘We Won in Fair and Open Fight' – Putin RIAN
87.   c Putin Supporters Fill Moscow Stadium RIAN
88.  Elder, Miriam (17 August 2012). "Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison colony over anti-Putin protest". The Guardian.
89.  Провокация вместо марша vz.ru
90.  "Russian police battle anti-Putin protesters". Reuters. 6 May 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
91.  СК пересчитал пострадавших полицейских во время "Марша миллионов" Lenta.ru
92.  Parfitt, Tom (7 May 2012). "Vladimir Putin inauguration shows how popularity has crumbled". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 7 May 2012.
93.  "Vladimir Putin inaugurated as Russian president amid Moscow protests". Guardian. 7 May 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
94.  ""Putin Inaugurated; States Intention for Russia to Be "Center of Gravity for the Whole of Eurasia", May 8, 2012". Larouchepac.com. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
95.  ""Putin decrees EU closeness policy", Voice of Russia, May 7, 2012". English.ruvr.ru. 7 May 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
96.  "Госдума приняла закон о "нетрадиционных отношениях"". BBC Russia. 11 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
97.  "ГД приняла закон об усилении наказания за пропаганду гомосексуализма среди подростков". РБК. 11 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
98.  "Discrimination in Russia: Arrests for Violation of St. Petersburg Anti-Gay Law", Spiegel Online, April, 06, 2012
99.  "Russian parliament backs ban on "gay propaganda",Reuters, 25 January 2013
100.  "Russia moves to enact laws against 'homosexual propaganda'", Fox news, 21 January 2013
101.  Jivanda, Tomas (19 Jan 2014). "Vladimir Putin: 'I know some people who are gay, we're on friendly terms'". The Independent. Retrieved 8 Feb 2014.
102.  Putin becomes Popular Front for Russia leader[dead link],Interfax-Ukraine (13 June 2013)
103.  "Echo of Soviet era in Putin's bid for votes". The Australian. 17 June 2011.
104.  "Putin inaugurates new movement amid fresh protests". BBC. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
105.  White, Stephen (2010). "Classifying Russia's Politics". In White, Stephen. Developments in Russian Politics 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-22449-0.
106.  R. Sakwa, Putin: Russia's Choice, 2008, p. 42-43
107.  Sovereignty is a Political Synonym of Competitiveness at theWayback Machine (archived December 8, 2006)[dead link]Vladislav Surkov, public appearance, 7 February 2006
108.  Our Russian Model of Democracy is Titled «Sovereign Democracy» at the Wayback Machine (archived November 5, 2006)[dead link] Vladislav Surkov, briefing, 28 June 2006.
109.  Lynch, Dov (2005). "The enemy is at the gate": Russia after Beslan. International Affairs 81 (1), 141–161.
110.  Putin tightens grip on security, BBC News, 13 September 2004.
111.  "Президентское фильтрование губернаторов оценили политики". Radiovesti.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
112.  Kramer, Andrew E. (22 April 2007). "50% Good News Is the Bad News in Russian Radio". The New York Times (Russia). Retrieved 24 September 2011.
113.  Masha Lipman, Anders Aslund (2 December 2004). "Russian Media Criticism of Vladimir Putin: Evidence and Significance". Carnegieendowment.org. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
114.  "State Duma Approves Liberal Political Reforms". RIA Novosti. 28 February 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
115.  "Arkady Rotenberg". Forbes.com. 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
116.  "Несмотря на двукратное снижение числа убийств, на фоне европейских показателей оно остается крайне высоким". Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
117.  "МВД рапортует: количество терактов снизилось в 15 раз". Finmarket.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
118.  "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". Imf.org. 14 September 2006. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
119.  "Ежегодно объем потребительского кредитования в России удваивается". Bank.samaratoday.ru. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
120.  "Основные Социально-Экономические Индикаторы Уровня Жизни Населения". Gks.ru. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
121.  Iikka. Korhonen et al. The challenges of the Medvedev era. Bank of Finland's Institute for Economies in Transition, 24 June 2008.
122.   c Daniel Mitchell Russia's Flat-Tax Miracle at the Wayback Machine (archived June 29, 2011). The Heritage Foundation. 24 March 2003.
123.  "Putin Advocates Strong Russia, Liberal Economy; President Surprisingly Candid in First State of Nation Address". Encyclopedia.com. 9 July 2000. Archived from the original on *. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
124.  Preobragenskaya, Galina; McGee, Robert W. (2006). "A Comparative Study of Taxation in Russia and Other CIS, East European and OECD Countries". Accounting and Financial Systems Reform in Eastern Europe and Asia. New York: Springer. pp. 277–298. doi:10.1007/0-387-25710-1_10.ISBN 978-0-387-25709-9. SSRN 526745.
125.  Goldman, Marshall I. (2008). "Chapter 5". Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534073-0.
126.  Rosstat Confirms Record GDP Growth Kommersant. Retrieved 5 May 2008.
127.  Aris, Ben. "Russia's WTO Entry: One Year On, Business is Disappointed”, Financial Times (27 June 2013).
128.  Krkoska, Alan; Spencer (2008). "Automotive Industry in Russia: Impact of foreign investments in car assembly plants on suppliers’ entry". European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
129.  Zvereva, Polina (11 October 2009). "State-sponsored consolidation". Russia & CIS Observer 3 (26).
130.  "Annual Report 2009". United Aircraft Corporation. 2010.
131.  Future Vision The Wall Street Journal
132.  Russia builds nuclear power stations all over the world at amur.kp.ru
133.  Richard Galpin (22 September 2010). "The struggle for Arctic riches". BBC News. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
134.  Peter Fairley (2 July 2010). "Russia Launches Floating Nuclear Power Plant". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
135.  "Prirazlmonaya sea platform to be delivered to offshore oil field". Information Telegraph Agency of Russia. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2011.[dead link]
136.   Andrew Kramer (30 August 2011). "Exxon Reaches Arctic Oil Deal With Russians". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
137.  The New York Times. 6 November 2004. Retrieved 20 April 2008.
138.  Tony Johnson. "G8's Gradual Move toward Post-Kyoto Climate Change Policy". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
139.  THE AMUR TIGER PROGRAMME[dead link] premier.gov.ru
140.  THE WHITE WHALE PROGRAMME[dead link] premier.gov.ru
141.  THE POLAR BEAR PROGRAMME[dead link] premier.gov.ru
142.  THE SNOW LEOPARD PROGRAMME[dead link]premier.gov.ru
143.  Bell, I (2002). Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia.ISBN 978-1-85743-137-7. Retrieved 27 December 2007.
144.  A religion for the nation or a nation for the religion: Putin's third way for Russia, Beth Admiraal, in Russian Nationalism and the National Reassertion of Russia, edited by Marlène Laruelle, (Routledge, 2009)
145.  "Bethlehem street named after Putin". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 June 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
146.  "he President of Russia attended the ceremonial signing of the Act on Canonical Communion that was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour" (Press release). Embassy of Russia in Ottawa. 17 May 2007. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 2 October 2008. Archived by WebCite atwww.webcitation.org/5bGjBVfm6
147.   No love lost, Yossi Mehlman, Haaretz, 11 December 2005
148.  Phyllis Berman Lea Goldman, (15 September 2003). "Cracked De Beers". Forbes
149.  Krichevksy, Lev (10 October 2011). ""In Putin's return, Russian Jews see stability". Jewish Telegraphic Agency". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
150.  Beginning of Meeting with Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov, 5 December 2007, Kremlin.ru
151.  Guy Faulconbridge Russian navy to start sorties in Mediterranean. Reuters. 5 December 2007.
152.  "Military reform to change army structure. What about its substance?". RIA Novosti. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
153.  Kristensen, Hans M. "New START Data Released: Nuclear Flatlining." FAS, 3 October 2012.
154.   William J. Broad (19 February 2008). "Russia's Claim Under Polar Ice Irks American". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
155.  Adrian Blomfield (11 June 2008). "Russia plans Arctic military build-up". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 27 July 2011.
156.  Mia Bennett (4 July 2011). "Russia, Like Other Arctic States, Solidifies Northern Military Presence". Foreign Policy Association. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
157.   c d e f Shuster, Simon. "The World According to Putin,"Time 16 Sep 2013, pp 30–35
158.  wmf . media.kremlin.ru (2007)
159.  "Sochi 2014: Putin declares gay athletes welcome", BBC (October 28, 2013).
160.  "President Obama joins list of world leaders to snub Sochi Olympics". Salon. December 18, 2013.
161.  "Putin Plays Games to Salvage Olympics". Bloomberg.com. December 19, 2013.
162.   c America's Failed (Bi-Partisan) Russia Policy by Stephen F. Cohen, Huffington Post
163.   c d Stuermer, Michael (2008). Putin and the Rise of Russia. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 55, 57 & 192.ISBN 9780297855101. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
164.  "Interview for Indian Television Channel Doordarshan and Press Trust of India News Agency, 18 January 2007". Kremlin.ru. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
165.   43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy. Putin's speech in English, 10 February 2007.
166.   Watson, Rob (10 February 2007). "Putin's speech: Back to cold war? Putin's speech: Back to cold war?". BBC.
167.  "Munich Conference on Security Policy, As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, 11 February 2007". Defenselink.mil. Retrieved 2013-12-21.
168.  "Press Conference following the end of the G8 Summit". Kremlin.ru. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
169.  "Russia walks away from CFE arms treaty". Agence France-Presse. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
170.  "EU's Solana rejects Putin's criticism over Kosovo's independence". IRNA. 23 February 2008. Retrieved 25 February 2008.
171.  "Putin: supports for Kosovo unilateral independence "immoral, illegal"". Xinhua News Agency. 14 February 2008. Retrieved 25 February 2008.
172.  "Putin: Kosovo case terrible precedent". Press TV. 22 February 2008. Retrieved 25 February 2008.
173.  Simpson, Emma (16 January 2006). "Merkel cools Berlin Moscow ties". BBC News. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
174.   c Gonzalo Vina and Sebastian Alison (20 July 2007). "Brown Defends Russian Expulsions, Decries Killings". Bloomberg News.
175.  UK spied on Russians with fake rock BBC
176.  "Litvinenko's father apologises for accusing Russia", BBC News, 12 February 2012
177.  Litvinenko: MI5, MI6 death files ordered released, RT
178.  Vladimir Putin (24 December 2012). "For Russia, deepening friendship with India is a top foreign policy priority by President Vladimir Putin". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
179.  "India, Russia sign new defence deals". BBC. 24 December 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
180.  Rajeev Sharma, specially for RIR (24 December 2012). "13th Indo-Russian Summit reaffirms time-tested ties: Russia & India Report". Indrus.in. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
181.  Page, Jeremy (26 September 2010). "Russian Oil Route Will Open to China". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
182.   Press Statement following the Peace Mission 2007 Counterterrorism Exercises and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, 17 August 2007, Chelyabinsk Region.
183.  Russia restores Soviet-era strategic bomber patrols, 17 August 2007, RIA Novosti, Russia.
184.  SCO Scares NATO[dead link], 8 August 2007, KM.ru
185.  Russia Over Three Oceans, 20 August 2007, "Chas", Latvia.
186.  Putin: Iran Has Right to Develop Peaceful Nuclear Programme, 16 October 2007, Rbc.ru
187.  "Putin's warning to the U.S.". Reuters. 16 October 2007. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007.
188.  Putin Positive on Second Caspian Summit Results, Meets With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 16 October 2007, Kremlin.ru
189.  Visit to Iran. Second Caspian Summit, 15–16 October 2007, Kremlin.ru
190.  Vladimir Putin defies assassination threats to make historic visit to Tehran, 16 October 2007, The Times.
191.  Answer to a Question at the Joint Press Conference Following the Second Caspian Summit, 16 October 2007, Tehran, Kremlin.ru
192.  "Putin's visit 'historic and strategic'". Gulf News. 18 April 2008. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
193.  Parks, Cara (21 March 2011). "Putin: Military Intervention In Libya Resembles 'Crusades'". Huffington Post.
194.  "Putin states the West has no legal right to execute Gaddafi – RT". Russia: RT. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
195.  "Vladimir Putin Blames US Drones For Gaddafi Death, Slams John McCain". Mediaite. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
196.  Citizen, Ottawa (16 December 2011). "Putin claims U.S. planned murder of Gadhafi". Canada.com. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
197.  Trenin, Dmitri (9 February 2012). "Why Russia Supports Assad". The New York Times.
198.  Fred Weir (19 January 2012). "Why Russia is willing to sell arms to Syria". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
199.  Viscusi, Gregory (1 June 2012). "Hollande Clashes With Putin Over Ouster of Syria's Assad". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
200.  Putin, Vladimir V. (11 September 2013). "A Plea for Caution From Russia". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
201.  ”Putin says US, Russia agree on how to destroy Syria's chemical weapons”, The Jerusalem Post (8 October 2013).
202.   Polish head rejects Putin attack, BBC News (24 December 2004)
203.   c Q&A: Russia-Ukraine gas row, BBC News (20 January 2009).
204.  Ukraine's parliament votes to abandon Nato ambitions, BBC News (3 June 2010)
205.  "After Russian Invasion of Georgia, Putin's Words Stir Fears about Ukraine", Kyiv Post (30 November 2010)
206.  "Russia and Eurasia". Heritage.org. Archived from the original on 28 May 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
207.  "Day-by-day: Georgia-Russia crisis". BBC News. 21 August 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
208.  Sparks, Ian (14 November 2008). "Putin planned to topple the president of Georgia and 'hang him by the b****', says Nicolas Sarkozy's chief adviser". Daily Mail (London).
209.  World Report 2011: Ukraine, Human Rights Watch
210.  Russia, Ukraine agree on naval-base-for-gas deal, CNN (21 April 2010)
211.  Kyrgyzstan profile, BBC News
212.  New Integration Project for Eurasia – A Future That Is Being Born Today, Izvestiya (3 October 2011)
213.  Новый интеграционный проект для Евразии – будущее, которое рождается сегодня (Russian)
214.  Bryanski, Gleb (3 October 2011). "Russia's Putin says wants to build "Eurasian Union"". Yahoo! News. Reuters. Retrieved 4 October 2011.[dead link]
215.  "Новый интеграционный проект для Евразии – будущее, которое рождается сегодня". Izvestia (in Russian). 3 October 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
216.  Kilner, James (6 October 2011). "Kazakhstan welcomes Putin's Eurasian Union concept". The Daily Telegraph(London). Retrieved 8 October 2011.
217.  "Russia sees union with Belarus and Kazakhstan by 2015". BBC News. 18 November 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
218.  Russia forges nuclear links with Venezeula[dead link] France 24
219.  Russian bombers land in Venezuela BBC
220.  [1] at the Wayback Machine
221.  "Russia Courts Indonesia". Brtsis.com. 12 October 2007. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
222.  "Addresses to the Federal Assembly". Kremlin.ru. Archived from the original on 6 June 2008. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
223.  "Article 84 of the Russian Constitution". Constitution.ru. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
224.   c d "СМИ: мюнхенская речь Путина – поворотная точка во внешней политике РФ". Nr2.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
225.  Медведев поздравил любимую группу Путина с 20-летиемnewsru.ua
226.  Speech at the Military Parade Celebrating the 62nd Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Red Square, Moscow, 9 May 2007.
227.   Путин: Главное, чтобы мы были вместе vz.ru
228.  "'We won!' Teary-eyed Putin proclaims victory". Setyoufreenews.com. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
229.  Madslien, Jorn (4 July 2007). "Russia's economic might: spooky or soothing?". BBC News. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
230.  "Putin's performance in office — Trends". Russiavotes.org. 31 October 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
231.  Arkhipov, Ilya (24 January 2013). "Putin Approval Rating Falls to Lowest Since 2000: Poll". Bloomberg. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
232.  "Quarter of Russians Think Living Standards Improved During Putin's Rule" (in Russian). Oprosy.info. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
233.  No wonder they like Putin by Norman Stone, 4 December 2007, The Times.
234.   Russia through the looking-glass openDemocracy. "...while only about half of Russian households have a telephone line at home, well over 90% have access to the First Channel and Rossiya. And for a vast majority of Russians, they are virtually the only source of information about political events. Given that typically well over half of their news broadcasts consist of sympathetic coverage of Vladimir Putin and members of the United Russia party, and oppositional figures are always presented in a negative or ironic light (if at all), it is unsurprising that the president is enjoying considerable popularity.". Retrieved 16 April 2008.
235.  Adi Ignatius. Person of the Year 2007, Time.
236.  Albright, Madeleine. "Vladimir Putin", Time. Retrieved 1 May 2008.
237.  Struck, Doug. "Gorbachev Applauds Putin's Achievements",The Washington Post, 5 December 2007.
238.  "Пресс-секретарь Путина ответил Горбачеву" [Putin's press spokesman answered Gorbachev]. Korrespondent (in Russian). 25 December 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
239.  "Das Internet prägt Russlands Wahlkampf" [The internet characterises Russia's campaign] (in German). RP online. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
240.  Smirnova, Julia (8 February 2012). "Wie die Putin-Jugend das Internet manipulierte" (in German). Retrieved 6 March 2012.
241.  David Leigh; Luke Harding (2011). WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy. PublicAffairs. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-61039-062-0.
242.  Marcel Van Herpen (25 January 2013). Putinism: The Slow Rise of a Radical Right Regime in Russia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-137-28280-4.
243.  Parfitt, Tom. "WikiLeaks row: Putin labels US embassy cables 'slanderous'", The Guardian, 1 December 2010.
244.  Andrew Osborn (25 September 2011). "Fears Vladimir Putin will turn Russia into outright dictatorship". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
245.  William J. Dobson (10 June 2012). "What, Me a Dictator?".The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
246.  Stephen Romei (18 May 2012). "Putin the elected dictator is doomed, biographer claims". The Australian. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
247.  Masha Gessen (21 May 2012). "The Dictator". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
248.  "David Miliband: Vladimir Putin Is A 'Ruthless Dictator'".Huffington Post. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
249.  "Mitt Romney: Vladimir Putin 'a threat to global peace'". The Daily Telegraph. 23 December 2011.
250.  "Russia's Anti-Putin Opposition: One Year On". [RIA Novosti]. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
251.  Bass, Sadie (5 August 2009). "Putin Bolsters Tough Guy Image With Shirtless Photos, Australian Broadcasting Corporation". ABC News. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
252.   c "Putin gone wild: Russia abuzz over pics of shirtless leader.". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Associated Press. 22 August 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
253.   c d Rawnsley, Adam (26 May 2011). "Pow! Zam! Nyet! 'Superputin' Battles Terrorists, Protesters in Online Comic".Wired. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
254.   c d e f g 7 Reasons Vladimir Putin Is the World's Craziest Badass cracked.com
255.  В.В.Путин взял в понедельник однодневный отпуск и провел его в Тыве at the Wayback Machine[dead link]
256.  В.В.Путин, находящийся с рабочей поездкой в Сибирском федеральном округе, совершил спуск на глубоководном аппарате «Мир» на дно озера Байкал at the Wayback Machine[dead link]
257.  Организаторы сафари для Путина объяснились по поводу "подставы с тигром": "Кому-то что-то показалось"newsru.com
258.  Putin attaches satellite tag to tranquilized polar bear in Russia's Arctic Fox News Channel
259.  "Finland accidentally bans Putin". 3 News NZ. 11 April 2013.
260.  Using crossbow, Putin fires darts at whale MSNBC
261.  "Премьер-гонка: Владимир Путин протестировал болид "Формулы-1"". Rg.ru. 17 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
262.  Путин погрузился с аквалангом на дно Таманского залива tetis.ru
263.  Vladimir Putin diving discovery was staged, spokesman admits, The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 March 2012
264.  Vladimir Putin leads endangered cranes on migration route in hang glider The Guardian
265.  "Russians smell something fishy in Putin's latest stunt". Reuters. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
266.  "Putin's Big Fish Story Leaves Russians in Doubt". Bloomberg. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
267.  "Putin Sings Blueberry Hill for Charity". Nonprofitquarterly.org. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
268.   "Владимир Путин сыграл на рояле "С чего начинается родина"". Dp.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
269.  Картина Путина стала самым дорогим лотом на аукционе в Петербурге RIAN
270.  @openspace_ru (14 March 2008). "Песни про Путина". Openspace.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
271.  "Такого, как Путин". YouTube. 23 February 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
272.  "Гороскоп (Путин, не ссы!)". YouTube. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
273.  ВВП on YouTube
274.  WATCH: No One In Russia Can Work Out If This Pro-Putin Dance-Pop Song Is Sincere — Or Satire businessinsider.com
275.  Как используется бренд "Путин": зажигалки, икра, футболки, консервированный перец Gazeta 30 November 2007.
276.  "Частушки (Не было оргазма)". Sergeysv.net. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
277.  Вова и Дима Lenta.ru
278.  "Superputin official site". Superputin.ru. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
279.  Epic Rap Battles of History Stalin vs. Rasputin on YouTube
280.  Фильм о любви человека, похожего на Путина BBC
281.  "Come to me, blogger-logi!". Themoscownews.com. 16 January 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
282.   c d Путинизмы – "продуманный личный эпатаж"? BBC(Russian)
283.   c d 20 высказываний Путина, ставших афоризмамиRIAN
284.  Премьер-министр Владимир Путин: Их нужно выковырять со дна канализации Izvestia
285.  Putin: NSA whistleblower Snowden is in Moscow airport | World news. The Guardian. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
286.   Day, Matthew (2 November 2011). "Vladimir Putin 'a wife beater and philanderer', documents allege". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 19 May 2012.
287.   c Osborn, Andrew (18 October 2010). "Vladimir Putin and wife spark divorce rumours with photo shoot". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 19 May 2012.
288.   c Elder, Miriam (27 February 2012). "Will Vladimir Putin's voting chances be hurt by 'cloistered wife' rumours?". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 19 May 2012.
289.   c "Mystery of Russia's missing First Lady: Is Putin's 'affair' with spy Anna Chapman the reason Lyudmila is never seen in public... or is she just locked away in a monastery?". Daily Mail(London). 23 April 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
290.  Quetteville, Harry de (17 April 2008). "Vladimir Putin 'to wed Olympic gymnast half his age'". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 17 April 2008.
291.  "Putin denies tabloid report that plans to marry former champion gymnast". International Herald Tribune. 18 April 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
292.  Shaun Walker, in The Independent, quoting Moskovski Korrespondent (18 April 2008). "A president, the gymnast and marriage rumors that won't go away". London. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
293.  "After Night at Ballet, Russia's First Couple Announces Divorce". RIA Novosti. 24 May 2002. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
294.  Craggs, Ryan. "Putin Divorce: Russian President And Wife Lyudmila Say Marriage Is Over On TV". Huffington Post.
295.  Yablokova, Oksana (9 August 2002). "Putin's Girls Having La Dolce Vita Break". The St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
296.  "'Onze' Jorrit versiert de blonde dochter van Poetin". Depers.nl. Archived from the original on 17 January 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
297.  "Russia's mysterious Dutch businessman". Rnw.nl. 12 January 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
298.  "Dochter Poetin woont in Voorschoten – Binnenland | Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl [binnenland]". De Telegraaf. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
299.  "Медведчук і Марченко помінялися місцями". Tablo ID (in(Ukrainian)). 2007-11-11. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
300.   "Russia's Plan For Ukraine: Purported Leaked Strategy Document Raises Alarm". RFE. August 20, 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
301.  "Medvedchuk flexes muscles after protesters pay house call". Kyiv Post. Dec 30, 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
302.  "Acceptable compromises and shared hypocrisies". Kyiv Post. Oct 8, 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
303.  "Quote.Rbc.Ru :: Аюмй Яюмйр-Оерепаспц — Юйжхх, Ярпсйрспю, Мнбнярх, Тхмюмяш". Quote.ru. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
304.  "Vladimir Putin: the Russian president’s 'life of four yachts and 58 aircraft’". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
305.   Foreign, Our (3 March 2011). "'Putin palace' sells for $350 million". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 5 May 2012.
306.  ЦИК зарегистрировал список "ЕР" Rossiyskaya Gazeta N 4504 27 October 2007
307.  ЦИК раскрыл доходы Путина Vzglyad 26 October 2007
308.  "Is Vladimir Putin the richest man on earth?". News.com.au. 26 September 2013.
309.  Gennadi Timchenko: Russia's most low-profile billionaireSobesednik № 10, 7 March 2007
310.  Harding, Luke (21 December 2007). "Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 18 August 2008.
311.  "Nina L. Khrushcheva examines the affinities between Russia's leader and Argentina's post-war strongman.". Project Syndicate. Retrieved 2013-12-21.
312.  "Что касается различных слухов по поводу денежного состояния, я смотрел некоторые бумажки на этот счёт: просто болтовня, которую нечего обсуждать, просто чушь. Все выковыряли из носа и размазали по своим бумажкам. Вот так я к этому и отношусь." The President's annual press conference for the Russian and foreign media, 14 February 2008, Kremlin.ru
313.  How the 1980s Explains Vladimir Putin. The Ozero group. By Fiona Hill & Clifford G. Gaddy, The Atlantic, February 14, 2013
314.  "Vladimir Putin 'galley slave' lifestyle: palaces, planes and a $75,000 toilet". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
315.  "Тайна за семью заборами". Kommersant.ru. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
316.  "Putin's palace? A mystery Black Sea mansion fit for a tsar". BBC. 4 May 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
317.  Wagner, Hans (30 June 2006). "Das Konfliktpotential mit den USA wächst (German)". Retrieved 29 March 2007.
318.  Wardell, Jane (25 June 2003). "Putin treated royally on historic London visit". Findarticles.com. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
319.  Kremlin Chief of Staff Surprised but Not Alarmed by Navalny, The Moscow Times, 2 October 2013.
320.   c (Sakwa 2008, p. 3)
321.   Timothy J. Colton, Michael MacFaul (2003). Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: the Russian elections of 1999 and 2000. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution.
322.  Putin Q&A: Full Transcript Time. Retrieved 22 March 2008
323.  Vladimir Putin: the NPR interview US radio station National Public Radio New York (15 November 2001)
324.  Putin, Vladimir; Vasily Shestakov, Alexey Levitsky (July 2004).Judo: History, Theory, Practice. Blue Snake Books. ISBN 1-55643-445-6.
325.  Black-Belt President Putin: A Man of Gentle Arts by Yasuhiro Yamashita
326.  Moskovsky Komsomolets: “Putin becomes sixth-level black belt” at the Wayback Machine[dead link] by Oleg Fochkin. premier.gov, re-publication of a Moskovsky Komsomolets article.
327.  "Putin urges revival of Soviet-era fitness tests – New York News | NYC Breaking News". Myfoxny.com. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
328.  Reuters in Moscow. "Vladimir Putin teams up with Steven Seagal to promote healthy lifestyle". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
329.  "Steven Seagal, Vladimir Putin sell revival of Russia fitness program". National Post. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
330.  Медведев и Путин покатались на горных лыжах в Сочиrosbalt.ru
331.  "Д.Медведев призвал россиян активнее играть в бадминтон" (in Russian). Top.rbc.ru. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
332.  "Путин провел тренировку по хоккею с Фетисовым". Lifenews.ru. 19 November 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
333.  "Putin to talk pipeline, attend football game". B92. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
334.  "Vladimir Putin: The coldest warrior". Express. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
335.  "Putin's lab bitch prominent negotiator". RIA Novosti. 9 April 2005. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
336.  "Любимая собака Путина заговорила по-английски с детьми" (in Russian). NEWSru. 19 July 2005. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
337.  "Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on expanding the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)". Prime Minister of Russia. 17 October 2008. Archived from the originalon 24 July 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2008.
338.  Председатель Правительства России В.В.Путин выбрал имя для своей новой собаки. И помог ему в этом пятилетний Дима Соколов из Москвы at the Wayback Machine[dead link]
339.  (French) Video Chirac décore Poutine
340.  Atul Aneja Putin goes calling on the Saudis. The Hindu. 20 February 2007
341.  Putin Receives Top UAE's Decoration, Order of Zayed, Rbc.ru, 10 September 2007
342.  "Глобальный игрок. ''Expert'' magazine. № 48 (589) 24 December 2007". Expert.ru. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
343.  В Грозном появился проспект имени Путина Lenta.ru
344.  Парламент Киргизии присвоил горной вершине имя Путина. Lenta.ru. 17 February 2011
345.  "Vladimir Putin in China Confucius Peace Prize fiasco". BBC. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
346.  Wong, Edward (15 November 2011). "In China, Confucius Prize Awarded to Putin". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
347.  "B92 News: Belgrade University to award Putin honorary doctorate". Retrieved 11 June 2012.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin