Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia and has been in workplace as president or prime minister for 22 years.
He entered politics in 1996 after a profession within the KGB, first changing into Russia's performing president in 1999.
President Putin is beneath international stress to finish the full-scale assault launched on Ukraine by Russia.
Excessive-level talks between the nations have begun, however there have been reviews of additional Russian missile strikes.
The EU introduced additional sanctions yesterday and pledged to fund weapons for Ukraine's combat in opposition to Russia.
Putin is a controversial determine each inside and outdoors of Russia for his authoritarianism and human rights report, Wales On-line reported.
However when did Vladimir Putin come to energy in Russia - and what did he do earlier than that?
When did Putin come to energy?
Vladimir Putin has been president of Russia since 2012, having beforehand occupied the position from 1999 till 2008.
He was the nation's prime minister from 1999 to 2000, after which once more between 2008 and 2012.
Born in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) in 1952, Putin was an intelligence officer earlier than coming into Russian politics.
His grandfather, Spiridon Putin, labored as a private prepare dinner for each Lenin and Stalin.
In 1999, Putin was appointed as performing Prime Minister by the ailing and more and more erratic President Boris Yeltsin, who resigned from his personal put up that December.
Yeltsin made it clear that Putin was his most popular successor for the presidency.
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Yeltsin was certainly succeeded by Putin as president of Russia.
Putin gained the presidential election of March 2000 within the first spherical, with 53 per cent of the vote.
After serving two phrases as president, Putin was compelled to face down in 2008, because the Russian structure barred him from serving three consecutive phrases.
He was changed by Dmitry Medvedev, and returned to his earlier place of Prime Minister.
Nonetheless, Putin was extensively regarded to be the true energy behind Medvedev's throne.
After Medvedev served a single four-year time period as president from 2008 to 2012, he was once more changed within the job by Putin, who has served as president ever since.
What's the KGB?
The KGB was the Soviet Union's essential intelligence and safety company. It was liable for each inside safety features and intelligence work abroad.
It was formally dissolved in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. The KGB was subsequently succeeded by the Federal Safety Service, or FSB, which stays Russia's principal safety company.
Was Putin within the KGB?
Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer earlier than coming into Russian politics.
He joined the KGB in 1975 and initially labored in counterintelligence, earlier than being transferred to watch foreigners and diplomatic officers in Leningrad.
Between 1985 and 1990, Putin was posted to Dresden in East Germany, being given a canopy identification as a translator.
Nonetheless, little is understood about what he truly did throughout this era, and there are conflicting accounts of how vital - or in any other case - his position was.
In keeping with Putin's personal account, he resigned from the KGB in August 1991, having obtained the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 1998, he was appointed as director of the FSB, the KGB's successor safety and intelligence organisation.