Vladimir Putin
From Wikinfo
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born October 7, 1952) is a former President and the current Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
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Biography
Putin was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). He was a KGB officer from 1975 to 1991 and head of the FSB (the KGB's successor} from July 1998 to August 1999. He was prime minister in Boris Yeltsin's government from August 1999. As Prime Minster he won great acclaim from the Russian people for managing the reinvasion of Chechnya. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned, and made Putin the second (acting) President of the Russian Federation. Proper Presidential elections were held on March 26, 2000, which Putin won. In 2004, he was re-elected for a second term, which expired on May 7, 2008. After this, he became Prime Minister of Russia, and his long time collegue Dmitry Medvedev, became President.[1]
Policies
Putin has been credited for bringing political stability to Russia and restoring the rule of law. During his presidency, Putin launched several major reforms, such as flat tax rate and new land and legal codes. His sound economic policies has been praised by analysts, who see them as a major factor for the improved economy. During Putin's time in office, Russia's economy grew at a fast pace, and poverty was cut down considerably. Real wages increased and quality of life became better. In foreign policy, Putin favoured pragmatism and is credited for making Russian foreign policy much more coherent than it was under Boris Yeltsin. Due to his remarkable achievements, Putin has been an extraordinaly popular figure among the Russians.
References
External Links
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Vladimir Putin. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of this Wikinfo article is available under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. |
