From a retired KGB agent in 1990 to becoming the Acting President of Russia in 1999, Vladimir Putin’s rise was swift with few parallels in modern history. As his reign enters 26th year, he stands much more powerful than Russia’s tsars or Soviet dictators the likes of Stalin.
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Vladimir Putin walks to take his oath as Russian president during an inauguration ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024.- AP
Vladimir Putin became the Acting President of Russia on December 31, 1999.
Boris Yeltsin, the then-President of Russia, resigned on the New Year’s Eve after eight years of being in office. The presidency passed to his Putin, who was the Prime Minister of Russia at the time. The moment capped the meteoric rise of Putin in Russia’s politics — he began his career just six years back in 1993.
Months later, Putin was elected to a full term as the President of Russia in March 2000. Since then, he has been the leader of Russia and has transformed not just his nation but Europe and global politics. While he faced challenges in the beginning and political instability, Putin soon firmed up his rule and systematically rooted out all dissent, political opposition, and critical activism in the coming years.
By the time his second term ended in 2008, Putin was on his way establish one-man rule in Russia.
Even though Putin is now synonymous with Russia and has more power than Russian tsars or Soviet dictators before him, he had a very unconventional start. Unlike his ally Xi Jinping, the President-for-Life of China, Putin was neither a princeling nor trained for decades in politics. Instead, he was an agent in Russia’s feared secret service KGB, which is now known as FSB.
Russia entered new century & new millennium with new leader
Yeltsin’s resignation and anointment of Putin as the successor was as symbolic as it was historic.
Russia entered the new year, new century, and new millennium with a new leader. The transition from Yeltsin to Putin was also a generational shift in Russian politics. Putin was 21 years younger than Yeltsin.
Yelstin had met Putin along with Patriarch Alexy II of Russian Orthodox Church before announcing the resignation on television.
Acknowledging the moment’s gravity, Yeltsin said in a broadcast that shocked Russia and the world that as Russians would “see a magical date on our calendars, the year 2000, a new century, a new millennium” in a few hours, they would also see a new leader.
Announcing his resignation, Yeltsin said he came to the decision to leave office on “the last day of the departing century” after he had “pondered long and painfully”.
“Russia should enter the new millennium with new politicians, new faces, new people who are intelligent, strong and energetic, while we, those who have been in power for many years, must leave,” said Yeltsin.
Rejecting the charge that he was leaving over poor health, Yeltsin said that there were many reasons for his departure, but he indicated the main reason was to make way for a new generation of leaders.
“I am leaving now. I have done everything I could. I am not leaving for health reasons, but for a multitude of reasons. A new generation is taking my place, a generation of people who can do more and better,” said Yeltsin.
Naming Putin as the acting head of state until elections in the upcoming year, Yeltsin called him a “strong leader” with whom the nation had great hopes.
“I must not stand in the way of that logical progression. Why cling to power for six more months when the country has a strong leader who can be its president, a man on whom nearly all Russians are pinning their hopes for the future? Why stand in his way? Why wait another half year? That is not for me,” said Yeltsin.
As he departed, Yeltsin’s final words as president to Putin were: “Take care of Russia.”
Putin’s journey from KGB to Russia’s leader
Putin wanted to join the Soviet secret service KGB from boyhood. He was inspired by the film ‘The Sword and the Shield’ (1968).
In 1968, Putin went to the local KGB office and asked for a job at the age of 16. He was asked to return after studying law. He returned to apply six years later after completing an undergraduate degree in law at Leningrad State University and was accepted.
Starting in 1975, Putin would serve in the KGB till 1990 when he would resign at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
While details about his KGB service are scarce, there are some widely known details. He is known to have worked in counter-intelligence activities and some accounts say he was also involved in the surveillance of Soviet dissidents. When the Fall of Berlin Wall in 1989, Putin was stationed in Dresden in East Germany.
As per widely reported accounts, Putin watched from the KGB headquarters in Dresden as people stormed the headquarters of Stasi, the East Germany’s secret police. He warned off the mob as it approached the KGB facility. Later, when he requested tank squad from help, he was informed that there would be no intervention without Moscow’s authorisation which would never come.
Putin returned to Russia after seeking retirement in 1990 just as Soviet Union was disintegrating. He entered politics at St. Petersburg.
Over the next decade, Putin would demonstrate political acumen while luck would also favour him — as it did in St. Petersburg.
When he returned to Russia, the Mayor of St. Petersburg was Anatoly Sobchak, one of his teachers at university. Putin joined him as an adviser and worked his way to become Deputy Mayor in 1994. Two years later, he moved to Moscow.
In 1996, Putin joined the presidential administration as a deputy to Pavel Borodin, the Kremlin’s chief administrator. His rise at Kremling was rapid — much more rapid than at St. Petersburg.
In 1998, Putin appointed him as the head of FSB, the successor agency of KGB that he was part of for 15 years. Soon, he was elevated to be the Secretary of the Security Council.
Then, in August 1999, Yeltsin appointed Putin as the Prime Minister of Russia. Months later, on the New Year’s Eve, he became the Acting President of Russia.
Putin starts as a strongman amid war
Even though he was practically unknown, Putin soon organised a military campaign against separati