Vladimir Putin

2025-08-27T13:32:11Z

5.151.189.195: Expanded on what should be an entire page’s worth of the section at hand, sourced from a leftist actually living in Russia

{{Infobox politician
|name=Vladimir Putin
|native_name=Владимир Путин|image_size=200|birth_date={{birth date and age|1952|10|7}}
|birth_place=[[Leningrad]], [[Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]] (now [[Saint Petersburg]], [[Russian Federation|Russia]])
|nationality=Russian
|website=[https://eng.putin.kremlin.ru/ eng.putin.kremlin.ru]
|political_orientation=[[Anti-communism]]<br>[[Russian nationalism]]<br>[[Social conservatism]]|political_party=[[All-Russia People's Front]]
|image=Putin.png}}

'''Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin''' ('''Владимир Владимирович Путин'''; born October 7, 1952) is a Russian right-wing politician and former intelligence officer who has served as [[President of Russia]] since 2012, previously being in the office from 1999 until 2008. He was also [[Prime Minister of Russia|prime minister]] from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. As of 2025, Putin is the second-longest serving European president, after [[Alexander Lukashenko]] of [[Belarus]].

Putin is demonized by the [[Bourgeois media|Western press]] for his economic policies which threaten the Western global monopoly on the oil markets, as well as his foreign policy which is against [[NATO]] in general. His regime has defended the sovereignty of states (such as [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]]<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=CBS News|title=Assad thanks Putin for Russia's efforts "to save our country"|date=2017-11-21|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bashar-assad-vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-syria-peace-initiatives/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250322101537/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bashar-assad-vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-syria-peace-initiatives/|archive-date=2025-03-22}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Damien Sharkov|newspaper=Newsweek|title=Russian President Says His Generals Saved Syria as He Hugs Bashar al-Assad|date=2017-11-21|url=https://www.newsweek.com/russian-president-says-his-generals-saved-he-hugs-bashar-al-assad-717973|archive-url=https://www.newsweek.com/russian-president-says-his-generals-saved-he-hugs-bashar-al-assad-717973|archive-date=2023-10-06}}</ref> and [[Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]])<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Telesur]]|title=Russia and Venezuela Cooperate in the Defense Sector|date=2021-06-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814205354/https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Russia-and-Venezuela-Cooperate-in-the-Defense-Sector-20210622-0019.html|archive-date=2024-08-14}}</ref> against Western [[regime change]] efforts. Putin's popularity is decreasing, but his approval rate remains above 75%.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Larry C. Johnson|newspaper=[[CovertAction Magazine]]|title=Star CIA Analysts Are Out of Touch With Reality When it Comes to Russia|date=2022-11-26|url=https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/11/26/star-cia-analysts-are-out-of-touch-with-reality-when-it-comes-to-russia/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127032053/https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/11/26/star-cia-analysts-are-out-of-touch-with-reality-when-it-comes-to-russia/|archive-date=2022-11-27|retrieved=2022-11-29}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in Leningrad, [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]] to Maria Shelomova and Vladimir Putin. In Leningrad Putin attended Primary School No. 193 from 1960–1968 before attending High School No. 281 until he completed his studies in 1970. In his younger years he was a troublemaker before committing himself to his studies around age 12 and took up martial arts along with joining the [[Young Pioneers (Soviet Union)|Young Pioneers]].<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|newspaper=Kremlin|title=Biography ∙ Vladimir Putin|url=http://en.putin.kremlin.ru/bio/page-0|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250820070858/http://en.putin.kremlin.ru/bio/page-2|archive-date=2025-08-25}}</ref>

In school Putin decided to work in intelligence and consequently became a student at Leningrad State University in 1970 to study law. Putin graduated with a degree in law in 1975 and joined the [[Committee for State Security|KGB]].<ref name=":0" />

== Political career ==
Initially a key ally of Anatoly Sobchak, Putin had helped enforce Yeltsin's takeover of the USSR from 1990. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he quickly rose the ranks in Yeltsin's administration and eventually became the favorite for president for loyalty during the 1993 and 1999 impeachment processes against Boris Yeltsin, both of which have failed.<ref>https://tass.ru/info/15972287</ref>

== Presidency ==
During his first tenure as president, the [[Russian economy]] grew for eight straight years, with [[GDP]] measured by [[Purchasing power parity|purchasing power]] increasing by 72%, real incomes increased by a factor of 2.5, real wages more than tripled; unemployment and poverty more than halved and the Russians' self-assessed life satisfaction rose significantly.<ref name="challenges_p12">{{Citation|author=Sergei Guriev, Aleh Tsyvinski, Anders Åslund, Andrew C. Kuchins|title=Russia After the Global Economic Crisis|publisher=Peterson Institute for International Economics; Centre for Strategic and International Studies; New Economic School|year=2010|isbn=978-0-88132-497-6|pages=12–13|chapter=Challenges Facing the Russian Economy after the Crisis}}</ref> This contributes to Western demonization, since the West had profited from the 1990s "Shock Therapy" of mass privatizations, which Putin has reversed.

In 2022, Putin gained a large amount of infamy among bourgeois media for the [[2022 Russo-Ukrainian conflict]], with many of the reports about the conflict being exaggerated or even fabricated.

== Criticism ==

=== Anti-communism ===
In 2000, Putin was quoted as saying, "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."<ref>Michael Wines, "[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/20/world/path-power-political-profile-putin-steering-reform-but-with-soviet-discipline.html PATH TO POWER: A political profile.; Putin Steering to Reform, But With Soviet Discipline]," ''New York Times'', February 20, 2000; "[https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00016963 Vladimir Putin 1952– Russian statesman, President of the Russian Federation 2000–8 and since 2012]," in ''Oxford Essential Quotations'', 5th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2017).</ref> However, later Putin would state that Russia’s economic issues stemmed from its Soviet legacy, famously saying “only Africans needed our galoshes to walk on the hot sand”. However, during bourgeois leadership, the share of energy exports grew from 40.5% to 75.3% compared to 1990. Meanwhile, shoes (galoshes) shrank from 3% to less than 0.5%.<ref>{{Video citation|url=https://youtu.be/vAoQVof9bcI?feature=shared|channel=@Vasiliy_Sadonin|title=Top 10 Anti-Soviet Fairytales by Putin {{!}} USSR {{!}} Galoshes {{!}} Socialism|date=14/07/2021}}</ref>

Putin opposes [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]'s policy of [[Nation|national]] [[self-determination]] and criticized the [[Bolsheviks]] for creating a separate [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1991)|Ukrainian]] state.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Liberation News]]|title=PSL statement: NATO expansion must end to guarantee peace in Ukraine|date=2022-02-22|url=https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-nato-expansion-must-end-to-guarantee-peace-in-ukraine/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206144042/https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-nato-expansion-must-end-to-guarantee-peace-in-ukraine/|archive-date=2022-12-06|retrieved=2023-02-04}}</ref>

=== Homophobia ===
Putin supported a 2013 bill that discriminated against [[LGBT+|LGBTQ+]] people and criminalized activism for LGBTQ+ equality.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Stewart Stout|newspaper=[[Liberation School]]|title=Russia: The struggle against anti-LGBTQ repression|date=2013-08-27|url=https://www.liberationschool.org/russia-the-struggle-against-html/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925043302/https://www.liberationschool.org/russia-the-struggle-against-html/|archive-date=2022-09-25|retrieved=2023-01-14}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:Anti-communists]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialists]]
[[Category:Current heads of state]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Presidents of Russia]]
[[Category:Prime Ministers of Russia]]
[[Category:Reactionaries]]
[[Category:Targets of bourgeois media]]
[[Category:Pages to be protected]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putin, Vladimir}}

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Vladimir Putin