Putin's post is the president of the Russian Federation. He has been leading our country since May 7, 2000, with a four-year break, when Dmitry Medvedev was the head of state. Currently, Putin’s fourth term in office is on May 7, 2018. In this article, we will talk about the presidency, who Putin used to be, what posts he held in the 90s under the first president of the country, Boris Yeltsin.
The president
The President is Putin’s position, which is the highest public office in the Russian Federation. The president is simultaneously the main state.
It is worth noting that most of his powers are directly executive in nature, that is, they directly relate to the executive branch. At the same time, some experts evaluating the current state of the state and politics in the country note that in Russia the president cannot be attributed to one specific branch of government. It seems to rise above all of them, as it carries out coordinating functions. This is also proved by the fact that the President of the Russian Federation has the right to dissolve the State Duma - the legislative body.
Under the current Constitution, the president is considered its guarantor, as well as the guarantor of human and civil rights and freedoms. In addition, he occupies the post of Supreme Commander, actually rising above all the army leaders. It is on his decision that key issues of state defense depend.
Another fundamental function of the president is the right to determine the main directions of foreign and domestic policy.
Childhood and youth
Putin’s position, which he now holds, is the highest post in modern Russia. Therefore, it is interesting how he came to him, what his path was, who it was worth working earlier to become the head of state in the future.
Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952. He lived with his parents in an ordinary communal apartment in Basque Lane. Later, he recalled that since childhood he was fond of films about scouts, which predetermined the choice of his profession.
By 1965, he graduated from the eight-year-old, after which he went to study at a special school with a chemical bias. Almost immediately after graduation, he went to the local KGB department, telling about his plans to become a scout. They listened to him and advised to get an advanced humanitarian education.
He entered the law faculty of Leningrad State University. As a student, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was then that I first met Anatoly Sobchak, who in the future will play an important role in his career growth. At that time, Sobchak was an assistant professor at LSU.
Security Service
The hero of our article was systematically moving towards his goal. After graduating from Leningrad State University in 1975, he received a distribution just in the KGB. After completing training courses for operational personnel, Putin began working in the territorial state security organs with the rank of senior lieutenant of justice.
Since 1977, he was transferred through counterintelligence to the investigative department of the Leningrad administration.
In the mid-80s, Putin, already in the rank of major, studied under the line of legal and illegal intelligence. From 1985 to 1990, he worked in the German Democratic Republic through foreign intelligence. In particular, he worked as part of a reconnaissance group in East Germany. His interests at that time included Western European countries that were considered allies of the United States. First of all, of course, Germany.
After the trip and return to the USSR, Putin refused to transfer to the central office of the KGB. He retired from the rank of lieutenant colonel in August 1991 after the speech of Sobchak against the Emergency Committee.
Work with Sobchak
Putin officially remained in the state security service, since 1990, his actual place of work was his native Leningrad State University. He was an assistant to the rector Stanislav Merkuryev, in charge of international affairs. It was Merkuryev who recommended Putin to Sobchak as a responsible and executive employee.
Since May 1990, Putin has been an adviser to Sobchak, the head of the city council of deputies of Leningrad. When Anatoly Aleksandrovich won the mayoral election in June 1991, the hero of our article moved to the city administration, taking the place of the head of the committee on foreign relations. He attracted investment in the Northern capital, oversaw cooperation with foreign companies, was responsible for the development of tourism.
Since the spring of 1994, he received the post of first deputy Sobchak. The former post of Putin remained with him, he still headed the committee.
Moving to Moscow
Putin moved to Moscow in August 1996, after the defeat of Anatoly Sobchak in the gubernatorial elections. He got the post of deputy manager of the president. At that time, this position was held by Pavel Borodin. This is Putin's first post in Moscow.
Already in March 1997, he headed the main control department of the President of Russia, since then, in fact, working in the Yeltsin team. In the spring of 1998, he was promoted to first deputy head of administration.
An important stage in his career is associated with July 1998. Putin's new position is director of the Federal Security Service. In the fall, he began a massive reorganization of the department. In particular, he is credited with ensuring uninterrupted financing and raising salaries for employees.
It is believed that a preliminary decision to transfer power to Putin was made by Yeltsin in May 1999. Therefore, it is important to track what position Putin held under Yeltsin.
It is noteworthy that the director of the FSB is not the most significant of them. On August 9, 1999, the hero of our article led the Russian government in the status of prime minister. On the same day, Yeltsin recorded a televised address in which he named Putin his successor.
An unpopular politician in the past, it was urgently necessary to “untwist” so that he would win in the upcoming presidential election. They took place earlier than originally planned, since on December 31, Yeltsin announced his resignation and the appointment of Putin as acting president of Russia. These are the posts held by Putin under Yeltsin.
The election took place on March 26, 2000. Putin won a landslide victory with nearly 53 percent of the vote in the first round. Putin officially took office on May 7.
Those elections were the most competitive in recent years, at least in terms of the number of participants. In total, eleven candidates were allowed to vote. At the same time, four of them did not even get one percent of the vote. These are Umar Dzhabrailov, Alexey Podberezkin, Yuri Skuratov and Stanislav Govorukhin. Ella Pamfilova overcame one percent, about one and a half percent of voters voted for Konstantin Titov.
Fifth place was taken by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose popularity since 1991, when his party won the State Duma elections, has fallen significantly. He received only 2.7% of the vote. The fourth was Aman Tuleyev (2.95%), Grigory Yavlinsky took the third place - 5.8%.
The main rival of Putin in the elections was considered the leader of the Communists Gennady Zyuganov. And so it happened, he managed to gain almost 29 and a half percent of the vote, which was not enough to appoint a second round.
Putin won with the support of nearly 40 million voters.
Inauguration
On May 7, a solemn ceremony of transferring power to the new head of state took place. As expected, Putin’s assumption of office was broadcast live by central television channels.
The ceremony was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace. This was one of the innovations, since before that Boris Yeltsin twice took power in the State Kremlin Palace. In 2000, for the first time, it was accompanied by a prayer service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Since then it has been considered a tradition.
The scenario of the inauguration and the procedure for its implementation have remained unchanged for many years. Putin’s inauguration ceremony began with the taking of the oath in the presence of deputies, members of the Federation Council, and judges of the Constitutional Court.
According to the script of the ceremony, Putin arrives at the inauguration of the president from his office in the Grand Kremlin Palace. He rises to the palace along the Red Porch, before which he greeted the presidential regiment, which is specially built for this purpose on Cathedral Square.
The new head of state arrives in the Kremlin as part of a motorcade through the Spassky Gate. He rises up the front staircase to the fanfare, enters the podium, after having previously passed through the Alexander and St. George Halls of the Kremlin.
Upon assuming the presidency, Putin put his hand on a special copy of the Constitution, pronouncing the text of the oath. Only after this, the head of state is officially considered to have taken office. The chairman of the Constitutional Court solemnly announces this. After that, the anthem of Russia sounds, and a duplicate of the presidential standard rises above the residence of the head of state.
Upon assuming the presidency of the Russian Federation, Putin addresses the citizens of Russia with a short address, which is broadcast live. Then on the Kremlin Embankment 30 solemn salvos from artillery shells are made.
In conclusion, the head of state leaves St. Andrew's Hall on Cathedral Square to host the parade of the presidential regiment.
Second term
We continue to talk in detail about Putin's posts over the years. After the end of his first term, Vladimir Vladimirovich decided to take part in the presidential election in 2004 as well.
This time, significantly fewer candidates participated in the vote - only six people. This time, Sergey Mironov, who failed to gain even one percent of the vote, remained in last place. A little more than two percent received a candidate from the Liberal Democratic Party Oleg Malyshkin. Almost four percent was won by the only woman from among the candidates - Irina Khakamada.
This time Sergey Glazyev closed the three leaders, only 4.1 percent of voters voted for him. The second place went to the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Nikolai Kharitonov, but he also failed to gain even 14%.
Putin won an even more convincing victory, gaining more than 71%. This time, almost 50 million people cast their votes for him. It is noteworthy that the inauguration took place again on May 7, like four years ago. That's when Putin took office for the second time.
The first two terms of Putin were marked by significant changes in domestic politics. Already in August 2000, the procedure for the formation of the Federation Council was changed. After the terrorist attack in Beslan in 2004, the president announced the cancellation of the election of regional leaders in order to strengthen the vertical of power. By that time, in parliament, he had already managed to secure the stable support of the United Russia party, which had won parliamentary elections a year earlier. Yeltsin did not have such conditions, since the parliament under the first president of Russia was always oppositional, the Communists were in charge of it. Each decision and bill had to be forced through the deputies. Now the Communists have finally faded into the background.
Experts began to note the staffing preferences of the president. He appointed his old friends in Leningrad to key posts, those with whom he studied at the university, worked in the city hall in the team of Anatoly Sobchak.
A large-scale reform has been carried out, the situation of the media has fundamentally changed. Free and independent publications in the country has become much less. The resonance in this planet was the NTV affair. It is believed that this was the beginning of the nationalization of media in the country, when the company was taken from private hands, in fact, transferred to the state structure.
In support of Putin at that time, various youth organizations were actively based. It was “Going Together, ” the movement “OURS”, “The Young Guard of“ United Russia. ”Of these, only the last is still active.“ Going Together ”ceased to exist in 2007, and“ OURS ”- in 2013.
At the same time, there has been an obvious growth in the country's economy, especially significant compared to the hungry 90s, when the country actually lived in debt, and salaries were not paid to state employees. Now, there was growth in all sectors, which, first of all, was associated with high oil prices, which remained at maximum levels almost all the 00s.
Prime again
Despite rumors that Putin was going to remake the Constitution for himself to go on a third term, this did not happen. In 2008, he announced his successor, which was Dmitry Medvedev. By tradition, the successor confidently won the first round. Under Medvedev, Putin took over as prime minister. If you follow Putin’s position over the years, he was Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012. He was approved for this post the day after the inauguration of the new head of state.
The period of this post of Putin was the massive global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2010. At that time, Russia began to reorient from its Western partners to even closer relations with Belarus and Kazakhstan, which resulted in the creation of the Customs Union.
Return to the presidency
In September 2011, at the congress of the United Russia party, Putin accepted the offer to run for president again. In response, he expressed the hope that in his team the post of prime minister would return to Dmitry Medvedev.
It is noteworthy that at that time there was active talk that Medvedev could run for a second term. In particular, it is alleged that his team, which has been with him all these four years, counted especially strongly on this. But that did not happen.
In the March 4, 2012 elections, five candidates participated. By tradition, the last place was taken by the leader of the Just Russia party Sergei Mironov. This time he managed to get significantly more than one percent of the vote - 3.85%. The fourth place was held by the candidate from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky (6.2%).
The third place, unexpectedly for many, was taken by a self-nominated oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, well-known in the country, who received support from almost eight percent of voters. Gennady Zyuganov again turned out to be second, his rating was 17.2%.
Vladimir Putin won the election, even though his result was lower than in 2004. 63.6% voted for him, more than 45 and a half million people.
By tradition, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin entered the new "old" post on May 7. This time, the inauguration turned out to be not so standard, as on the same day the head of state signed a series of program decrees that were aimed at significantly improving life in the country. They went down in history as May decrees. The date when Putin took office was remembered even better in this regard.
For this term, Putin had the largest sporting event that the country has hosted in the past few decades. In 2014, Sochi hosted the Winter Olympic Games.
Just a month later, he made another fateful decision, the consequences of which are still felt. In Ukraine at that time there was a protracted political crisis. In March 2014, the head of state received permission from the Federation Council on the use of Russian troops in Ukraine. The very next day, he spoke before both chambers of the national parliament in connection with a request for the admission of the Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation, which came from the leaders and residents of the peninsula. All the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was officially the territory of Ukraine.
This decision caused a mixed reaction in the world. The Western community and the United States criticized him unambiguously, after which sanctions were imposed against Russia and domestic companies, the consequences of which are still being felt since they have not yet been lifted.
