Of the world’s 8 billion population, the name Vladimir Putin today must be the best known.

However, if people are questioned as to his background, Russia’s president would likely be one of the least well known.

Russia’s current head of state was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, which is now St. Petersburg.

Like Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), his background was working-class and humble. He is an avowed Christian and sees his mission as tackling Satan.

He spent his early years in a shared communal apartment in Leningrad. He often talked about his early life, which he described as modest and difficult.

Lost Siblings

His parents had lost two children before his birth, including one during the WWII siege of Leningrad. As a youth, he practiced martial arts and was known for getting into fights.

After studying hard, Putin, at 23 years of age, earned a law degree at Leningrad State University in 1975.

Collapse of the USSR

Later, he earned a PhD in economics (Candidate of Sciences). His mentor at university was Anatoly Sobchak, a key reform politician during the restructuring of the Soviet Union, a period known as perestroika.

Just as George Bush served as a CIA agent

Again, like Adolf Hitler, who once served the secret services, Vladimir Putin served 15 years as a foreign intelligence officer in the KGB, including six years in Dresden, East Germany.

There, he gathered political intelligence and recruited sources and became fluent in German and English. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Mentored

After returning to Russia, he became assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University (1990). Putin served as advisor to the mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, his early years mentor.

By 1994, Putin had become First Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg, and he consolidated his position when he moved to Moscow. His trajectory to greater prominence began in earnest from 1996 to 1999)

Selected and elected to lead Russia

He was Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration (1997), Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) (1998), and Secretary of the Security Council (1999).

Prime Minister of Russia (August 1999). And on December 31, 1999, Boris Yeltsin resigned, and in doing so he made Putin acting president.

Vanquished the mainly Jewish oligarchs

Putin has dominated Russian politics for over two decades: First Presidency (2000–2008), Centralized federal power, reined in the mostly Jewish oligarchs, managed conflicts including the Second Chechen War and was re‑elected in 2004

Later, as prime minister from 2008 to 2012, he served under President Dmitry Medvedev, but was widely seen as maintaining control behind the scenes.

President, Prime Minister, President

Re-elected, Putin returned to the presidency in 2012 until the present.

Denies NATO a foothold in Russian territory

Among his key actions we can include the annexation of Crimea (2014) following a hit-and-run referendum which voted in favor of reunion with the Russian Federation and which denied NATO a foothold on the peninsula

Syria

This was followed by Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015, which further antagonised Israel and Washington DC, which was never to forgive his audacity.

Ukraine

This was followed by his laying claim to Ukraine’s eastern territories, again following a referendum in which the results were in favor of the people’s will to be governed by Moscow rather than NATO-controlled Kyiv.

Putin was again overwhelmingly re‑elected in 2018 and 2024. Since then, he has pursued assertive policies in Russia’s ‘near abroad,’ including the war in Georgia (2008), and successfully recovered. Russia’s control of Eastern Ukraine,

Vladimir Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva (1983–2014). The now-separated couple have two daughters: Maria (1985) and Katerina (1986). He keeps his family out of public view. Send us your comments

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