Vladimir putin wife
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Vladimir Putin (1952-) is a former KGB agent who has ruled Russia for more than two decades. Intent on restoring Russian might following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he has launched several military campaigns, including an invasion of Ukraine, and helped usher in what’s often described as a new Cold War. Meanwhile, he has steadily tightened his grip on power, persecuting political opponents, shuttering independent media outlets, and otherwise dismantling the country’s nascent democracy.
Putin's Early Years and Personal Life
Much about Vladimir Putin’s personal life remains murky. Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1952, he has recalled growing up modestly in a rat-infested communal apartment building. His parents, who lost two children prior to his birth—one of whom died during the prolonged Nazi siege of Leningrad in World War II—apparently doted on him despite working long hours. As a youth, he practiced martial arts and is reputed to have gotten into many fist fights.
In 1983, Putin married a flight attendant, Lyudmila Shkrebneva, with whom he has two daughters.
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Vladimir Putin: From Russia's KGB to a long presidency defined by war in Ukraine
Four years later, Chechen rebels took 1,000 hostages, most of them children, at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. When Russian special forces stormed the building, 330 people died. It later emerged that Russia had intelligence of a planned attack but had failed to act.
The first years of the Putin presidency were both bloody and turbulent, but the Russian economy was doing well, buoyed by high oil prices.
He won public support for taking on the billionaire oligarchs who had run rife in Russia in the 1990s. Summoning them to the Kremlin, he said they could keep their money as long as they kept out of politics and backed him.
He acted fast against those who didn't, such as Russia's then-wealthiest man Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested at gunpoint and jailed in Siberia.
Russia's president had something of a honeymoon with the West. He was one of the first foreign leaders to ring President George W Bush after the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks on the US. He even helped the US launch
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Vladimir Putin
President of Russia (1999–2008, 2012–present)
"Putin" redirects here. For other uses, see Putin (disambiguation).
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin[c][d] (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000[e] and again from 2008 to 2012.[f][7] He is the longest-serving Russian president since the independence of Russia from the Soviet Union.
Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and then as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in August 1999. Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin became acting presid
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