Politics and Power: Putin's Ascent in Russia

Since taking the office in 2000, Vladimir Putin has expanded the powers of Russia's presidency, consolidating authority in the Kremlin and weakening other democratic institutions.

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Vladimir Putin in a class photo dated 1966. Putin, an only son, was born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, to a factory foreman and his wife on Oct. 7, 1952.

/ Laski Diffusion-Newsmakers

Putin dances with a girl named Elena at a secondary school in 1969. Putin entered Leningrad State University's law department in 1970 and graduated in 1975.

/ AFP

Putin, bottom, performs in a training fight with fellow pupil Vassily Shestakov at a judo class in a St. Petersburg sports school, 1971. Putin remains an accomplished judo practitioner.

/ AFP

The house in Dresden, Germany, where Putin's KGB unit was based sits across the street from the headquarters of the former East German secret police, the Stasi. Putin spent 17 years as a mid-level agent in the Soviet KGB's foreign intelligence wing, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

David Hoffman / The Washington Post

Putin, right, then St. Petersburg deputy mayor, stands near Anatoly Sobchak, then the city's mayor, in the summer of 1994. After serving in the KGB, Putin became an aide to the mayor of Russia's second-largest city.

Dmitry Lovetsky / AP

Retiring Russian President Boris Yeltsin, right, shakes hands with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as Yeltsin leaves office, Dec. 31, 1999. Under the Russian constitution, Putin served as acting president until he was formally elected three months later.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Russian women brave frost and snow to sell cigarettes on a street in downtown Moscow, Feb. 24, 2000. Russia's economic problems posed a major test for Putin's presidency, as the economy transitioned from the Soviet command system to a free market.

Mikhail Metzel / AP

A worker refuels a car at one of the Slavneft oil company gas stations in Moscow, Dec. 18, 2002. Largely on the strength of its oil industry, Russia's economy rebounded under Putin's watch, raising incomes and allowing the government to pay off its foreign debt.

Alexander Merkushev / AP

Putin speaks to the media near a polling station in Moscow, March 26, 2000. After becoming president, Putin immediately set about restoring a degree of order after a decade of economic and political upheaval that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

POOL / AP

A Russian soldier jumps from a tank in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Feb. 28, 2000. In 1994, President Boris Yeltsin sent troops into Chechnya to try to quell a separatist drive, leaving tens of thousands dead in 21 months. The so-called second Chechen war broke out in 1999.

/ AFP

A woman stands with her belongings among the ruins of Grozny in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, Feb. 23, 2000. Yeltsin appointed Putin prime minister in August 1999, as fighting erupted in northern Chechnya. Other nations and human rights groups protested the brutal tactics employed by Russian troops in Chechnya.

/ AFP

Representatives of the NTV creative team are interviewed after a meeting wth President Vladimir Putin, Jan. 29, 2001. In April 2001, state-controlled energy company Gazprom took over Russia's sole major independent television network, dispatching security forces to seize NTV headquarters.

Pavel Smertin / Kommersant

Voters read their ballots at a polling station in Moscow, Dec. 7, 2003. Russians cast votes in parliamentary elections that tested the Kremlin's ability to strengthen its dominance of the legislature and gave President Vladimir Putin more influence in shaping the country.

Sergei Grits / AP

A Russian soldier fires at Chechen fighter positions near the village of Chervlyonaya in Chechnya, Oct. 16, 1999. The second Chechen war broke out after terrorist bombings in Moscow were blamed on Chechen separatists.

Dima Korotayev / Reuters

Russian security forces cordon off the House of Culture for the State Ball-Bearing Factory in southeast Moscow, Oct. 26, 2002. Three days earlier, Chechen separatists had seized the theater and hundreds of hostages.

Valery Melnikov / Kommersant

An Interior Ministry rescue worker carries a body out of the Moscow theater where hundreds of hostages were held by Chechen rebels. More than 90 hostages and 50 Chechen guerrillas died when Russian special forces pumped gas into the theater and stormed the building in a dramatic pre-dawn raid on Oct. 26, 2002, that freed about 700 captives but left most of them hospitalized.

Dmitry Lovetsky / AP

A man carries a boy during a rescue operation in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia, Sept. 3, 2004. More than 300 children, parents and teachers died in the bloody culmination of a 52-hour siege that began when heavily armed Chechen guerrillas stormed Beslan's School No. 1 and ended in an hours-long battle with Russian troops.

Yuri Tutov / AFP/Getty Images

A man carries a schoolgirl rescued from the Beslan school captured by Chechen separatists, Sept. 3, 2004. There had been more than 1,000 hostages inside the school, the majority of them children.

Valery Melnikov / Kommersant

Mourners visit the gymnasium of the destroyed school in Beslan, Sept. 10, 2004. One week after the Beslan school hostage siege ended in tragedy, relatives were still searching for missing relatives and for answers about how hundreds died in an assault by security forces.

Maxim Marmur / AFP

Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, right, review an honor guard during a ceremony prior to their talks in Minsk, Belarus, Dec. 14, 2007. The talks focused on efforts to strengthen ties between the two former Soviet neighbors. Lukashenko, a dictator in practical terms, is a strong Kremlin ally.

Ivan Sekretarev / AP

Putin carries a hunting rifle in the mountainous southern Siberian region of Tuva, Aug. 15, 2007.

Dmitry Astakhov / AFP/Getty Images

President George W. Bush, right, applauds as Putin catches a striped bass, July 2, 2007, while fishing near the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Putin was the first world leader invited by Bush to stay with him at Walker's Point during a visit intended to cool tensions in U.S.-Russian relations.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Putin talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders of the Group of Eight countries during a meeting of the 2007 G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, June 7, 2007. Under Putin, Russia has gone from economic crisis to wealthy powerhouse.

Denis Sinyakov / Reuters

President Bush and Putin embrace at the end of a joint news conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 15, 2006. Putin hosted President Bush and other leaders of the industrial world at the 2006 G-8 summit. High prices for oil and other natural resources have fueled Russia's economic rebound.

Jim Bourg / Reuters

Putin looks at a demonstration of flights during the MAKS-2005 International air and space show, Aug. 16, 2005, in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow. Putin's government has invested budget surpluses in rebuilding the country's armed forces.

MLladen Antonov / AFP/Getty Images

Putin, right, and Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov visit the Plesetsk cosmodrome to watch a Molniya rocket launch, Feb. 17, 2004, in the Arkhangelsk region.

Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant

Alexander Litvinenko lies in a hospital bed in London, Nov. 20, 2006. Litvinenko died on Nov. 23, 2006, three weeks after he was poisoned in what friends said was a plot orchestrated by the Kremlin.

/ REUTERS

Putin, left, talks with young skiers at the cafe of a newly opened alpine ski center that will be used in the 2014 Olympics at Krasnaya Polyana in the southern Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Jan. 2, 2008.

Dmitry Astakhov / AP

Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, enter a Moscow polling station, Dec. 2, 2007, to cast their votes in Russia's parliamentary elections. The elections gave Putin's party a strong majority.

DMITRY ASTAKHOV / AFP/Getty Images

About 5,000 members of the pro-Kremlin Nashi movement carry Russian flags and wear cloaks with the portrait of Putin and the words: 'Our Victory', as they rally in Moscow's Red Square, Dec. 3, 2007, to celebrate the victory of Putin's party in the parliamentary election.

MISHA JAPARIDZE / AP

A woman exits a voting booth at a polling station in Stavropol, Dec. 2, 2007. During Putin's eight years in office, opposition parties have been largely sidelined as his government established control over key elements of the news media and moved to centralize power.

Danil Semyonov / AFP/Getty Images

Putin delivers a speech during a forum with supporters in Moscow, Nov. 21, 2007. In the Dec. 2, 2007, parliamentary vote, the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, whose ticket was headed by Putin, won more than 60 percent of the vote.

Alexander Nemenov / AFP/Getty Images

Putin walks with his First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, June 8, 2006. Putin expressed support for Medvedev as his successor, Dec. 10, 2007, a move likely to ensure Medvedev's election. One day later, Medvedev said he wanted Putin to remain in government as prime minister.

Dmitry Astakhov / AP

Putin watches a martial arts tournament in the Luzhniki sports center in Moscow, Nov. 30, 2007. Putin's popularity, coupled with a likely post as prime minister in 2008, would invest him with tremendous political strength.

Dmitry Astakhov / AFP/Getty Images

Sept. 24, 2011

Medvedev and Putin stroll at the Zavidovo presidential residence in Russia's Tver Oblast. Medvedev announced that he would step aside to allow Putin to run again for his old job of president in the 2012 elections.

VLADIMIR RODIONOV / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Sept. 24, 2011

Putin, left, and Medvedev at a congress of the ruling United Russia party in Moscow.

YEKATERINA SHTUKINA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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