Vladimir Putin: Rise and rise of Russian leader as he marks 20 years at the helm

Russian President Vlimir Putin achieved a major landmark of 20 years at helm, on May 7, 2020, involving in a tremendous change witnessed by former Soviet state. former KGB officer was serving as Prime Minister when President Boris Yeltsin abruptly resigned on December 31, 1999, naming Putin as acting President amid pending elections.

Putin won his first presidential election on March 26, 2000, by a slim margin but suffered a blow to his im within months due to sinking of Russian submarine Kursk in Barents Sea. submarine h a crew of 118 members onboard and one survived accident. Russian President’s first comments came after four days of accident and denied delays in rescue operation.

first term of Putin’s presidency was marred with controversies related to Chechen militants and arrest of Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky whose supporters said it was thing but punishment of meddling in politics. However, Putin came back for a second term in 2004 with an overwhelming majority on back of oil prices boom leing to rise in living standards.

In a step to centralise power, Putin scrapped direct elections for regional goverrs, paving way for Kremlin to decide on appointees. While his regime brought social stability and ecomic progress, it came at cost of press freedom and democracy at large, something his critics deemed indispensable. 

In 2006, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a strong critic of human rights abuses in Chechnya, was killed in Moscow and ar critic Alexander Litvinenko died in London after reportedly being poisoned with a rioactive substance. An inquiry by UK authorities later found out that Litvinenko was murdered by Russian spies.

Putin h to step down from presidential position due to constitutional limitations on more than two consecutive terms, but Russian leer chose to serve as Prime Minister and his ally Dmitry Medvedev became President. He returned as President after winning elections in 2012 with Constitutional amendment w increasing president's term of office from four to six years.

Russia joins WTO

One of major achievement of Putin came as Russia’s formal joining on World Tre Organisation (WTO) after 18 years of rigorous negotiations. Russia also successfully hosted Winter Olympic Games in Black Sea resort of Sochi. In biggest East-West showdown in post-Soviet era, Russian forces annexed Crimea from Ukraine and a referendum upheld annexation to join Russia.

In 2018, Putin was re-elected with a landslide victory with a mandate to stay in office until 2024 but latest sweeping reforms have given Russian leer an option to run for two more terms. proposal was sent to Russian Constitutional Court which cleared it to let Putin stay in power beyond term limits. referendum on proposal was set to be held on April 22 but was postponed due to rising cases of coronavirus in country.

Re: Russia Passes Bill Allowing Putin To Stay In Power Past 2024

(Im: AP)