Dreams of beheadedness
Vladimir Putin wanted the planet to love Russia as he did erstwhile he was a boy dreaming of spying for the USSR.
He wanted to be a modern leader who alternatively of shouting "enemy tempts you with Coca-Cola" drinks Diet Coke - if not Clinton, then Bush, and if not Bush, Trump.
Except the West didn't want to love Russia, or even respect it as much as it wanted to.
It's hard to say erstwhile Volodya got Russia into 1 thing and decided that if they didn't want to respect them, they'd be afraid of them.
Respect and oil are abundant in their homeland. Especially erstwhile parent Russia goes to war with her neo-car, whose support grows like yeast.
This time Volodya miscalculated. present he's at war with the full world. He's lost his last remaining respect. Love of the subjects.
Vladimir Vladimirovich opens his eye
On a plate of omelet, buckwheat, fresh squeezed juice. Next to a fork worth as much as a laptop. Putin is simply a humble man, at least erstwhile it comes to breakfast.
To satisfy Stalin's palate, you had to get tired. Take 1 of his favourite dishes - Satsivi chicken - a stew on a broth with coriander, nuts, saffron, hops, onions and lots of garlic. Vladimir's grandpa cooked it many times, though not to his grandson, due to the fact that where and where would he get the ingredients.
Spiriton Putin went to work in the kitchen erstwhile he was a kid. And due to the fact that he did as small as anyone, they began to teach him to be a cook. Prior to planet War I, he cooked at the luxury Astoria Hotel, earning himself the designation of Rasputin himself, who supposedly gave him a genuine coin.
Then Spiridon was Lenin's cook, and after his death, Stalin. And like many dictator cooks, he survived the purge. As the old adverb teaches, do not bite the hand that feeds you. Vladimir Vladimirovich guided him his full life, or at least while there was inactive a hand over him.
Hitler had a different nutritional preference than Stalin, although he may have had something in common with Putin. At the end of his life, he demanded that 30 people effort each of the dishes he was serving. Unless no of them died after 45 minutes, he sat at the table.
It is easy to imagine akin procedures in the case of Vladimir Vladimirovich. A man who knows a thing or 2 about poisons, due to the fact that he's been studying in a chemical profile technique, due to the fact that how else would he know?
Putin's breakfast is alternatively late. He doesn't like to get up before 8:00, and work doesn't start until about noon. Before that, he exercises - sometime at the gym to control to swimming in fresh years.
And possibly that's why she doesn't look her 69th birthday at all today. Like Silvio Berlusconi, he grows younger with time. The wicked gag is that the old satyrs have a common surgeon.
But swimming and full meals are not about appearances, but about records to beat. Only Comrade Stalin ruled Russia longer than he did. As for the dimension of the presidency, Putina is inactive ahead of Alexander Lukashenko.
Vladimir Vladimirovich must take care of himself, due to the fact that under the fresh law he can regulation until 2036. And it is hard to presume that he would resign - he did not change the constitution to "request" by Valentina Tereshkov.
Here's the first female in space, anointing him with the first neo-car due to the fact that our Volodya loves large symbols.
For example, on October 7, 2006. The President's birthday and the execution of the most celebrated opposition writer Anna Politkowska abroad. 3 weeks later, Alexander Litwinenko, a erstwhile KGB officer who investigated her death, reaches the infirmary in London. Sam dies at the end of November. The origin is poisoning.
Prior to his death, Litvinenko published a book and made a documentary showing that they were liable for the explosions of housing buildings in Russia at the end of the 1990s.
This was 1 of the first times in Volodya's life erstwhile he decided to play himself alone, not 1 of his powerful and influential friends. Putin wasn't cruel, he just had a purpose. What? About that right now.
Minsk, November 2000 – most likely 1 of Putin and Lukashenka’s first meetings•fot. ITAR-TASS / EastNews
Son of Leningrad
Vladimir Vladimirovich is born in the fall of 1952. His parents, no of whom will see their son's presidency, are then in their 40s. Volodya will stay an only child.
I mean, if at all Maria Ivanowna Putina and Vladimir Spiritovich Putin are his real parents. In 2006, Vera Putin appears on stage. A 90-year-old in Georgia claims to be the president's biological parent and tells intricate household stories, and those who want to perceive to her are not short.
According to her version of Wowek - as she fondly calls Putin - is the illegitimate kid of her and a man who has never seen his son. Vera left erstwhile she found out her future father had a wife. 2 years later, she left Vova in the care of her grandparents and went to practice in Tashkent, where she fell in love one more time - this time in Georgia, to whom she brought her son.
In this story, which inactive has many twists of action, there is poverty, drinking, bad stepfather and half of Russia in the background. It's a local version of The Match Girl, where the mediocre baby is strong present and a brave president.
It stimulates imagination, especially in a country where until late they found each another and decision the miraculously rescued daughters of Tsar Nicholas. But the times have changed, the Tsar no longer remembers what the large USSR is.
Let's go back to the authoritative version. Vladimir's older brothers die early in childhood. First Albert, and during the blockade of Leningrad, the longest siege in modern history, and several-year-old Victor.
For 2.5 years, nearly 1 and a half million people died in the Nazi army around the city. First there was artillery fire, then there was famine, and behind it was illness to which the exhausted inhabitants were peculiarly vulnerable.
Victor falls into the mud, which, under these conditions, means sentence. most likely only Maria Putin, whose husband is fighting at the front, watches his dying boy by his bed. He will be severely injured, which will put an end to his military career, which he had begun a decade earlier aboard a russian submarine.
This will not be the only Putin household war trauma. Vladimir Vladimirovich's grandma is besides killed in planet War II, and his mother's brother will never return from the front. How do you deal with senseless death and suffering? You can make sense of them.
In 2005, Vladimir Putin decides to make the 8th May triumph Day the most crucial Russian national holiday. There's no area for crying for the dead. Rather, it is simply a day of pride from Russia, which saved the planet from Nazism. And by the way, an yearly demonstration of force - specified awesome military parades in Moscow have not been seen since the fall of communism.
Blowed, puffed
Although the parents of small Volodya work in factories and cannot afford any extravagance, they spoil the only boy they have left as shortly as they can. So what if Vladimir Sr. is harsh, and he's expected to have a dense hand. fewer that the russian father does not have.
He'll be the eye of his parents even as an adult. erstwhile they win a lottery car worth a luck then, alternatively of selling it and securing themselves a fewer years without worrying about money, they hand over the car to the only one.
From the mediocre working class Vladimir Vladimirovich will be the only student with his own car throughout the university.
Little Volodya can be learned a small more from his teachers and erstwhile coach. I mean, you could have. For a good fewer years, their order to consult the Kremlin has been in force. And even though they never said a bad word about their foster kid, at least not on purpose.
Like his teacher with emotion and admiration, mentioning that young Putin was highly talented erstwhile it comes to cheating. Well, that's the kind of setting of a russian man's factory, for which cleverness is not so much a pursuit of dishonesty as a cleverness, a love of hazard and a sign of life's wit.
The Oligarchs in the Contra
Ironically, very akin views prevail from the early statements of Mikhail Chodorkowski and Boris Bieriezowski, who are not hidden from being good at "drawing".
The declassed oligarchs, who were opponents of Putin and any of the most crucial people in the country erstwhile he took over, were shortly to see that there would always be a greater wiser. Not necessarily smarter, but with little scruples.
Beriezowski, who founded and promoted the 1 Russia - Putin's party, characterized by mostly blind support for the neo-car, shortly resigned from the parliamentary mandate and began criticizing Vladimir Vladimirovich. It was not hard to expand, as in the hands of the oligarch there was the first channel - the largest and oldest tv station in the country. You didn't gotta wait long for a reaction.
When Beriezowski found out abroad that the lawyer General was calling him for questioning, he decided not to return to the country and apply for political asylum in the UK. The first channel, reaching almost 99 percent of the Russian population today, took over the Kremlin.
Funny. Not long ago, Boris told the impertinently Western writer whom he invited to a mansion close the celebrated Rublowka - the suburban millionaire street - that if you control the media, you can make a president of anyone. For Vladimir Vladimirovich, this was 1 of the most valuable lessons of power.
Still, Beriezowski was smart adequate to never return to the country again. Meanwhile, it took only 2 years longer to catch Mikhail Chodorkowski, Russia's richest man in the 1990s.
A co-owner of Yukos - a no-existing oil company - was arrested on charges of privatisation irregularities. During the trial, he announced that he preferred prison alternatively than the life of a political emigrant. The untouchable Chodorkowski did not anticipate how far Putin's influences were reaching.
He was not a political immigrant until 2013, after serving 10 years in a penal colony, Putin will release him to repair his relation with the West before the Winter Games in Sochi.
Leningrad, 1964
For a young master of cheating more crucial than school becomes a sport. At the age of 12, he starts training judo to focus a fewer years later on the sambo - patriotic version of judo, to which elements of the conventional martial arts of the USSR peoples were developed.
Anatolij Rakhlin, under whose eye Vladimir Vladimir Vladimirovich will spend 15 years, initially did not have large hopes in him. A small boy with a hair colour of wheat did not look - and never began to look - like a typical judoka.
But Rakhlin rapidly noticed that the inconspicuous Volodya could become his black horse. He's been a coach besides long to believe in natural talent - the talented have it against themselves that they halt working as hard as the rest.
It is not known whether young Putin sees that he is at most average, or simply has a hard time in his blood. 1 of his advanced school teachers retained papers showing that Volodya may not have been the best student, but he was appreciated for his industriousness. It will be the same in the KGB, or at least at the beginning of his career, erstwhile he works more than is required of him, staying at work until evening.
Vladimir Putin visited Japan in 2000•photo. JIJI PRESS / EastNews
Besides Volodya's industriousness, she has something else. The tenacity that accompanies him from childhood and makes him never let go.
The judo club, where he trains, changes his location respective times. The boys who had a fewer minutes to see him so far don't want to commute, the more they are mostly teenagers. That's different, young Putin. He is not disgusted by the penetrating Leningrad frosts, nor by the hr of one-way travel.
Finally, the minute comes and Putin becomes the best player in the club. He's got guys from all over town coming to the sparring - sometimes 2 heads taller and a twelve pounds heavier. But Volodya's not scared, like any smart guy likes to hazard it. Soon, the young become the master of Leningrad juniors.
- I'm sorry. He simply did what the opponent did not expect, says Anatoli Rakhlin after years.
Vladimir Vladimirovich erstwhile asked about his favourite blow in judo did not hesitate a minute - de ashi harai - to cut the legs of the opponent from behind. Though unexpected, the fallen sees the face of an adversary superior to him.
Just after winning his first 2000 presidential election, Putin will send for his old coach, though they haven't seen each another in many years. Nevertheless, Rakhlin was inactive 1 of the fewer people who knew him the longest and best.
Anatoly will then mention that he felt sorry for Volodya due to the fact that he looked exhausted, but inactive devoted quite a few attention to the coach, reluctantly telling about himself.
Trust, or possibly sentiment toward those who knew him and liked him before he became influential, are very characteristic of Putin. 1 of the most crucial people in Russia present is his friends and friends from the time of his studies, working at the town hall in St. Petersburg, but above all - the service in the KGB.
When Putin takes over the centralization of power in Russia shortly after taking power, consolidating it from dozens in only 7 national districts (today, together with Crimea, there are 9), power in most of them as authoritative attorneys nominated by the president will be taken over by KGB colleagues.
From a spy to a spy
Putin grows up to be a boy with small talk and discipline, though not without a sense of humor. He goes to advanced school and inactive trains martial arts, but no longer has a future with them. Now he wants to be a spy - preferably international. His dream is to fight the enemy, though not even a sport.
There is inactive a cold war going on, with the propaganda of Volodia soaking so much that after coming to power, he will be able to feel its climate to usage it for his own needs. The longer Putin is in power, the stronger the American consensus will return. For example, erstwhile there is simply a request to explain military interventions, but besides erstwhile the streets of Moscow are filled with protesters, or finally, erstwhile news of his next machloikas becomes heard.
In a country with specified a history, you don't even request to point a finger, you know who cares about weakening parent Russia. After any time, another "imperialist" in the form of the European Union will join the list of imaginary enemies.
In Putinian narration Poland has been a country of rusophobes for respective good years, and in Ukraine, as in the West, the enemy is to lift his head, whose strangulation is celebrated on triumph Day. And yes, it's fascism.
And nevertheless curiosical these ideas may seem, Vladimir Vladimirovich knows how to practice effective propaganda - at least in Russia.
From 1 of the many frequently changing politicians around Boris Jelcin, he broke into wider consciousness as the face of the Second War in Chechnya, which he himself initiated, and then he built immense political capital on it. He utilized it to compete in presidential elections only 5 months later.
Many Russians inactive dream of the erstwhile lost power. This imaginarium small Volodya knows from the lining due to the fact that he lives in it himself.
Not in the first years erstwhile Russia recorded regular economical growth due to the fuel marketplace situation, nor after the Winter Olympics in Sochi, erstwhile it could show itself to the planet from the best side, but in 2014. Just after the annexation of Crimea.
Vladimir Vladimirovich then supported 88 percent of the society. Russia has enlarged its territory for the first time in years. Putin has not enjoyed this much support from his fellow countrymen since the West condemned introduction of armed forces to Georgia in 2008 to support Russian separatists (sound familiar?).
Many boys may dream of a spy career, but fewer have the iron will like Volodya. The KGB office was scheduled to study back to him as a teenager, although of course he quit.
Nevertheless, he applies himself to German learning and decides to give himself to the law - it is simply a good direction for, either way, a state official. It is carefully recorded for additional lectures from the ideology of communism. Just after college his dream yet comes actual - Volodya is admitted to the KGB.
It is hard to imagine that he would then think of power, honor, or even realize the moral aspects of this work. The russian propaganda is excellent, and the KGB is not negative yet. It's an army, but it's more prestigious, due to the fact that they don't take them all. Home service, but much more interesting.
Young Putin never had a long language, but in training for agents he learns to filter information and hide emotions even more carefully. possibly a better lie? It is known that 1 of the readings is Dale Carnegie's global bestseller “How to win friends and influence people” (in the authoritative translation “How to make friends and win people”, although more virtually it would be “to influence people”).
One of Putin's best friends - cellist Sergey Roldugin, who is the godfather of both his (official) daughters - mentioned that Vladimir Vladimirovich did not even want to tell him about his work in the KGB. After 1 of the next questions, he said that he is fundamentally active in building a relation “people - this is my profession” - said Roldugin.
How did “building a relationship” look in practice? Despite fueling the aura of mystery that led to the fact that any of Putin's compatriots present consider almost as Russian James Bond, who despite the collapse of the USSR inactive can't unconspire, the spy career did not turn out as he imagined it.
Vladimir Putin builds relations•photo. Paul Hanna / East News
Volodya becomes an authoritative and works mainly from behind the desk. No crucial matters or secrets of state weight. Although he is inactive conscientious and committed, he promotes only erstwhile - to check whether foreigners arriving in Leningrad have any another interests than they declare.
Perhaps that is the time erstwhile the 30 - year - old Putin recognizes that the hard work he has been working on since his childhood is not the most effective way to succeed. Meanwhile, Volodya falls in love.
She is chosen by six years younger Ludmila Aleksandrovna, who came to the city from Kaliningrad to take her studies in the philology department - she will postgraduate with a diploma and beristy, while working as a stewardess. Friends who remembered Putins of that time remember her as cheerful and energetic.
A freshly baked husband applies for a position in the KGB branch in the GDR - it is hard to say if he is tired and bored of working in his hometown, or alternatively wants to take advantage of the opportunities that work carries with him right at the western border of the empire. Anyway, after additional training in Moscow in 1985, he goes to the facility - just before leaving the world, Masha will appear.
A year later, the Putins celebrate the birth of another daughter, whom I call Katja. Although their stay in Dresden will take little than 5 years for known reasons, they will guarantee that their daughters do not lose contact with the language by sending them to German schools in Russia.
Ludmila and Vladimir Putins in 2000•photo. Roslan Rahman / East News
Capable Tsarevich
Today, no of Putin's daughters have a household name anymore. The younger 1 decided to change in advanced school, adopting the maiden name of the parent and besides changing the associate of “Vladimirovna” for the unknowable. In turn Masha even changed her name to a more Western-sounding “Maria”, and in addition to her husband's name - Dutch businessman Jorrit Faasssen - besides uses the name Vorontov.
It would be naive, however, to presume that this was a manifestation of opposition to the father's policy, of which they are beneficiaries. Children of Russian oligarchs do not even gotta take over household business present - alternatively they choose jobs that suit them most. Deputy Director's seat in a large state company for a individual just after college? Why not? This is what Russian neofeudism looks like at the highest level.
In this respect, Putin's daughters are very modest, and surely modester than the unofficial stepmother, Alina Kabayeva - a erstwhile gymnast and Olympic medalist who, despite deficiency of experience and directional education, was already given a managerial position in the largest media group in the country, to become head of the board a fewer years later.
There is no reason to presume that Masha Putina is not a large pediatrician and endocrinologist, especially since she has respective technological publications on her evidence and the beginning of the doctoral cord. This does not change the fact that her investigation was financed by Moscow oligarchs. It is besides believed that Masha is present an advisor to her father for genetic engineering and its application to children (sic!). Ironically, erstwhile Russia released Sputnik (a vaccine on COVID-19, not satellite), media suggested that Masha invented it.
Who'd have thought she lived in the Netherlands a decade ago and barely knew whose daughter she was? She was expelled from this country after Russian troops besieging Crimea then shot down a plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Katja's identity came out a small earlier and was revealed by Reuters. Taking your mother's maiden name isn't the best thought for people who don't want to be family. Especially if you dance an acrobatic rock’n’roll and go to global tournaments (which is interesting - besides to Poland). Katja and her partner reached 5th place in the planet ranking, then ended her career.
Although acrobatic rock’n’roll is not 1 of the popular disciplines (in Russia it survived boom after being shown that it was coached by the daughter of the admired president), a training center was shortly built in Moscow for about PLN 120 million, a unusual chance belonging to the school where Katja practiced. As far as formal education is concerned, the younger daughter went in any way in her mother's footsteps and studied nipponese to start her next course - this time she chose mathematics.
In 2013 Katja marries Kirilla - the boy of Mikołaj Shamalov - a millionaire, co-owner of the Rossij Bank and a longtime friend of his father. It's all in the family. The young couple have known each another since they were a child, while the Shamals and Putins spent their holidays together.
Unfortunately, long - word cognition and reason are not enough. shortly Kirill - then called the youngest Russian billionaire - begins an affair with the London-based and elite-oriented Zanna Wołkowa, which is the visual other of Katja.
The tall, dark-haired Zanna is simply a typical Russian beauty like Irina Shayk. He can dress for that. Unlike Katja, who seemingly inherited her mother's taste. Moscow stylists who tried to dress Ludmila considered her to be “a hopeless case”. 1 thing Vladimir Vladimirovich, who rapidly loved well-cut suits with the best fabrics.
There were good jobs waiting for Katja to shed tears. Today, he manages the construction of the modern technological centre of the University of Moscow and sits on the state council of physical culture and sports development. In addition, she has the post of manager of the investigation institute on artificial intelligence, for which she was appointed as a 33-year-old, only a year after defending a master's in mathematics.
So much has been known about the president's eldest daughters recently. Putin protected them from media interest for a long time. They have not been publically shown decently since childhood, and before 2010, they were not able to find pictures of them online. erstwhile asked about Masha and Katja, the president always answered very general. Nevertheless, it is from his statements that he is already a grandfather, although the age, sex and number of grandchildren are not known.
Vladimir Putin in a navy hat•photo. Laski Diffusion / EastNews
When Moscow is silent
The Berlin Wall falls, and Vladimir Vladimirovich is terrified. He cannot yet know what this means for Europe. For him, it means mainly an assassination on his homeland. He's on his way to the KGB office in Dresden, and erstwhile an angry mob gathers under the building, it's most likely the most daring minute of his career as a secret agent.
There are different versions of this communicative in Russia today. For example, Putin ran out of the building and stopped the “enemies” by force of will. A more likely version, however, appears to be the 1 where Volodya, locked in for 4 triggers, burns the file. It is known that he tried to connect to the KGB office to ask what to do (or more pathetically: ask for further orders). but nobody answered.
The dramatic phrase “Moscow is silent” falls even in its authoritative biography. It is hard to say which of Putin's large ideals of youth falls first - the 1 about hard work that leads to the top, or possibly about the power of the USSR.
Vladimir Putin to visit Kazan•photo. LASKI DIFFUSION / EastNews
At the beginning of the fresh year, Putins return to Leningrad, which will shortly become St. Petersburg. Vladimir Vladimirovich is only 37 years old, but he will never return to active service again - according to any sources in the KGB he was accused of an insufficient degree of loyalty.
Putin starts working at his erstwhile university in the office of cooperation with abroad, but the KGB badge is only a year and a half later, precisely the second of the 3 days of the Moscow Pucz, erstwhile it was known what the consequence would be.
However, he already managed to spin around his erstwhile lecturer Anatolija Sobczak, who is then the mayor of Saint Petersburg. He will be Putin's first crucial protector, but besides Putin's promoter, who will repay him in return.
Sobczak's wife will mention that Anatoly, who wanted to be seen as a politician (he shortly became 1 of the authors of the First Constitution of the Russian Federation), was not convinced to Putin due to his past in the KGB. On the another hand, Volodya was an enticing option - agents were known for their ability to keep their mouths shut, which Anatoly was very good for him.
Thus in July 1991 Putin starts working as head of the office of cooperation with abroad. 1 could say that it is simply a natural choice - he yet had experience in a akin position and knew German well. but that's not precisely true.
Putin's department is the 1 who will shortly start going through the biggest money, and Sobczak is perfectly aware of it. all abroad company that intends to open its office in St. Petersburg must first have the signature of inactive small Volodya.
According to the findings of Alexey Navalny - a imprisoned oppositionist for years investigating corruption of the Russian elite - recognized by Amnesty global as a prisoner of conscience - Putin was already taking bribes at the time.
Volodya spills oil
Putin accepted representatives of abroad companies, wrote the sum on the card, then promised to consider the case and asked to leave the “inference” with the assistant. He never took the money personally. But it was inactive a penny. Real money is made on exports - mainly oil, metals and wood.
In the early 1990s, store shelves are empty. The Russian authorities are forced to exchange natural materials for Western foods, which gives emergence to various types of scams.
And this is where Vladimir Vladimirovich first comes in. In exchange for a large batch of natural materials, a tiny batch of oil goes to St. Petersburg.
It is hard to say whether Sobczak's greed is guilty (because it is hard to say that a clerk who has been working for little than a year to do so himself), or Volodya's contractor was an even more shrewd man, or possibly the gentlemen who already have any experience in the con may not be published.
In any case, an investigation is underway at the city hall, resulting in Putin uncovering that he has passed over $90 million worth of natural material through his fingers - usually lowering their value.
And here on a white horse comes Anatoli Sobczak, who does not agree to remove his right hand and take legal steps. The case is swept under the carpet as inadequate care at work. And Putin keeps trying - for Sobczak.
Vladimir Putin is talking to Ludmila Sobczak. Beside Ksenia Sobczak - erstwhile a Moscow celebrity, present an oppositionist on emigration•photo. EastNews
Soon, gentlemen are besides approaching privately. Volodya even travels with extravagant Sobczaka to the States - he has a tour and she has security. but with that protection, Putin knows who not to jump.
One evening, erstwhile a man jumps to his boss’s wife in an elevator and makes any unmistakable remarks, then bites her in the neck, Putin does not react. The man turns out to be a comparative of the Prince of Monaco.
In 1996, Sobczak's word in town hall ends. Volodia, already promoted to deputy mayor, is active in the election campaign.
It is not known which 1 can more believe in election defeat. However, it is known that for a fewer weeks they close themselves in their homes, drink and avenge themselves. Unfortunately, the loser has different consequences than the hangover. Over Sobczak there is simply a threat of translation from the real property market.
Ludmila Sobczak suggests to her husband that he pretend to have heart problems (four years later Anatolij will actually die of a heart attack). After a fewer days Sobczak disappears from the hospital, and the service manages to find that he fled the country aboard a private jet. Sobczaks settle in Paris and Volodia calls regularly.
Sam goes to Moscow, where he already has any connections. Besides, in St. Petersburg he's already politically burned - who wants to work with the right hand of corrupt Sobczak?
From Ludmila Putiny’s letters to a German friend at the time, the couple is obsessed with real estate. Ludmila, after visiting Moscow's friends' flat, writes a fewer pages to describe them in the smallest detail.
He is besides afraid that erstwhile they get an flat in Moscow, they will not be able to keep it in St. Petersburg - of course, that is not the case.
Funny thing is, according to Putin's taxation records, his property listing hasn't increased importantly since then. Well, he bought a tiny share.
From the same period comes the relation of a colleague from work, whom Vladimir Vladimirovich was to ask about the metro of his fresh apartment. erstwhile he heard that it was somewhat larger than the Putins' flat of nearly 300 m2 (sic!), he did not talk for respective weeks.
Boris Jeltsyn hires Putin as head of administration under the command of Anatoly Czubajas - 1 of the most corrupt figures of the time. Czubajas knew that Putin in a advanced position would be very useful to him and it is impossible to say he was incorrect - present he is 1 of the most crucial Russian oligarchs.
Boris Jelcin with Vladimir Putin, who will shortly take his place. EastNews
Then there are also positions until the landmark year is coming: 1999. Czubajas, seemingly satisfied with his cooperation with Putin, along with the already mentioned in this communicative Bieriezowski (a tv owner who only 2 years later will gotta flee the country to which he will never return), urge the increasingly drunk Jelcin to make Vladimir Vladimir Vladimirovich Prime Minister.
The president agrees, especially since he has a debt of gratitude in Volodya. His support falls from period to month, and it is mainly Putin who is the head of the national safety Service - means the fresh "democratic" incarnation of the KGB - who protected him from impeachment.
The BBC article from that time is comic from today's perspective. In Britain no 1 knows Vladimir Vladimirovich - the station is sending its correspondent in Moscow to talk the language. Putin is described as "serious, smileless, but effective".
In turn, the White home spokesperson in a conversation with the BBC says that "Mr Putin is known to them" - Americans worked with him on the occasion of the mission to Kosovo, and cooperation is mentioned as "constructive". He adds mysteriously that they "co-operated with Mr. Putin for their political purposes, not his personality."
New Russia
After "Mr Putin" took over as Prime Minister, things happen very quickly. In the same period Vladimir Vladimirovich decides to start another war in Chechnya, which will let him to gain designation in the country - he goes even to the place where he distributes knives in a tight shirt to soldiers. The successes of the front have earned him the sympathy of the Russians.
And then it comes December 31, 1999. In the conventional fresh Year's Eve speech Boris Yeltsyn says something nobody expects. He resigns from office and apologizes to the nation for failing.
On the first day of 2000, Vladimir Vladimir Putin takes over his duties. Volodya loves large symbols. Russia is entering the fresh millennium with a fresh president like the planet or the Russians have never seen before.
Winning in the March elections is just a formality. On March 26, Volodya will celebrate the 22nd anniversary of this triumph. And may his love of dates and symbols neglect this time.
