How Did Putin Become President of Russia?
Watch our latest video to learn how Putin became the President of Russia.
Experts believe that Putin got his dictatorial traits from his former boss. Putin was the deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg in 1991 and the mayor - his boss was Anatoly Sobchak. Putin admired him and is said to have picked his traits. On a personal level, Putin was deeply impacted by the fall of the USSR in 1991. The time from 1991 to 1999 was a turbulent time for Russian society. Boris Yeltsin who was the President at that time was believed to be the worst President ever for Russia. The Russians did not like his attitude. He would butter western leaders like the American president, drink in public, dance, etc. This did not suit the orthodox culture of Russians. Under Boris Yelstin’s leadership, poverty increased in the country. In 1996, America influenced the Russian elections and got Boris Yelstin elected for the second term. But the Russians were not ready to accept him as their president for a long time as he was corrupt, drunk and laughing stock. In 1997 Putin became the deputy chief of the Presidential Staff. In 1998 he became the head of the Federal Security Service ( FSS), which replaced the KGB as the new spy agency of Russia. There were protests against Boris Yelstin. The situation was such that if something was not done soon, he would have been assassinated. To counter this weak image of the leadership, he appointed Putin as the Prime Minister in 1999 as he had a very strong image.
Unlike Yeltsin, Putin could never trust the western leaders. He knew that NATO was growing. Even in 1999, he feared that NATO would expand and old USSR countries would join in and surround Russia. That time he was upset that Yeltsin was not stopping nato. Putin wanted an independent Russia that was influential and feared by the world.
In 1999 Chechnya militants killed 300 Russians in a series of blasts to establish an independent state. Putin took some strong steps against the militants and defeated them. He called them mad dogs, shamed them on TV interviews. He had vowed to avenge the blasts. However, there are rumours that Putin may have made KBG agents plant these bombs so that Putin becomes popular. Russia went into war with Chechnya and about 80,000 people were killed and Chechnya was brought back into Russia. This made Putin establish himself as a strong Russian leader. Shockingly, suddenly President Yelstin resigned and named Putin as the president on 31st December 1999. Putin is known to be very secretive.
