Vladimir Putin

Early Life and KGB Career

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 into a working-class family in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). He graduated in law from Leningrad State University in 1975, where he came to know Anatoly Sobchak, a law lecturer who later became mayor of Saint Petersburg. After graduating he joined the Soviet State Security Committee (KGB), and from 1985 to 1990 he served in Dresden, East Germany, under cover as a translator, acting as a liaison with the East German Stasi; he was reportedly promoted to lieutenant colonel.

From Saint Petersburg to the Kremlin

After returning in 1990 Putin took a post at Leningrad State University and then joined the city government led by Sobchak, handling external relations, becoming deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg in 1994. After Sobchak lost his re-election bid in 1996, Putin moved to Moscow to work in the Russian presidential administration, and in 1998 became director of the Federal Security Service. In August 1999 Boris Yeltsin appointed him prime minister, and he led the Second Chechen War; when Yeltsin resigned on 31 December that year he became acting president, and he was elected president in March 2000 and re-elected in 2004.

First Two Presidential Terms

In his first presidential term Putin built a "power vertical" strengthening central control over the regions and moved against some Yeltsin-era oligarchs: Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky went into exile, and Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky was imprisoned. Russia's economy grew by about 7% a year over the period, driven by economic reforms and a sharp rise in oil and gas prices. Barred by the constitution from serving more than two consecutive terms, he served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012 while Dmitry Medvedev was president.

Return to the Presidency

Putin was elected president again in 2012 amid large protests in Moscow and elsewhere alleging electoral fraud. In 2014 Russia annexed Crimea, drawing Western sanctions, and from 2015 Russian forces intervened in the Syrian civil war. He was re-elected in 2018. In April 2021 he signed constitutional amendments allowing him to run for two more terms, potentially extending his presidency to 2036. On 24 February 2022 he announced a "special military operation" against Ukraine, launching a full-scale invasion that drew international condemnation and wider sanctions; that September he announced a partial mobilisation and the annexation of four Ukrainian regions. On 17 March 2023 the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on suspicion of the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine; Russia called the warrant void, and neither Russia nor China recognises the court's jurisdiction. He was re-elected in 2024.

Relations with China

On 16 July 2001, Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed the Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation in Moscow; in May 2026 the two heads of state jointly announced a further extension of the treaty. On 14 October 2004, during Putin's visit to China, the two foreign ministers signed the Supplementary Agreement on the Eastern Section of the China–Russia Boundary, which, together with earlier agreements on the eastern and western sections, settled the entire course of the China–Russia border.

On 4 February 2022 Putin came to Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and held talks with Xi Jinping. The two countries issued a joint statement on international relations entering a new era that day, declaring that their friendship "has no limits" and that there were no "forbidden" areas of cooperation, with Russia supporting China in hosting the Games. Shortly after the Olympics closed, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On 3 September 2025 Putin attended the commemoration in Beijing of the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.