VLADIMIR PUTIN
Name: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Born: 7 October 1952 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born October 7, 1952, in
Leningrad, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) is the
President of the Russian Federation. He became acting President on December 31,
1999, succeeding Boris Yeltsin, and then won the 2000 presidential election. In
2004, he was re-elected for a second term, which expires on May 7, 2008.
Putin was born in Leningrad like (now Saint Petersburg) on October 7, 1952. A
quasi-autobiographical book (Romanization: Ot Pervovo Litsa;
the English-language title: First Person, the meaning of the Russian phrase
being more polysemantic), based on his interviews, translated into English in
2000 and paid for by his election campaign, speaks of humble beginnings,
including early years in a communal apartment. According to him, in his youth,
he was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet
screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov.
His mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina, was a factory worker and his father, Vladimir
Spiridonovich Putin, was conscripted into the Soviet Navy, where he served in
the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. His father subsequently served with the
NKVD in a sabotage group during the Second World War. Two elder brothers
were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months of birth; the second
succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad. His paternal grandfather,
Spiridon Putin, had been Vladimir Lenin's and Joseph Stalin's personal cook.
Putin's surname translates "man of path" into English.
Putin graduated from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the
Leningrad State University in 1975. His final thesis was on an international law
theme - Russian
Thereafter he was recruited to the KGB. At the University he also became a
member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until
the party was dissolved in December 1991.
He worked in the Leningrad and Leningrad region Directorate of the KGB, where he
became acquainted with Sergei Ivanov.
In 1976 he completed the KGB retraining course in Okhta, Leningrad. The
available information about his first years at the KGB is somewhat contradictory;
according to some sources, he completed the other retraining course at the
Dzerzhinsky KGB Higher School in Moscow and then in 1985 - the Red Banner Yuri
Andropov KGB Institute in Moscow (now the Academy of Foreign Intelligence),
whereupon (or earlier) he joined the KGB First Chief Directorate (Foreign
intelligence branch).
From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany, in what
he regards as a minor position. Following the collapse of the East German regime,
Putin was recalled to the Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June
1991 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad
State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov. In his new position,
Putin grew reacquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad. Sobchak
served as an Assistant Professor during Putin's university years and was one of
Putin's lecturers. Putin formally resigned from the state security services on
August 20, 1991, during the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev.
Name: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Born: 7 October 1952 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born October 7, 1952, in
Leningrad, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union) is the
President of the Russian Federation. He became acting President on December 31,
1999, succeeding Boris Yeltsin, and then won the 2000 presidential election. In
2004, he was re-elected for a second term, which expires on May 7, 2008.
Putin was born in Leningrad like (now Saint Petersburg) on October 7, 1952. A
quasi-autobiographical book (Romanization: Ot Pervovo Litsa;
the English-language title: First Person, the meaning of the Russian phrase
being more polysemantic), based on his interviews, translated into English in
2000 and paid for by his election campaign, speaks of humble beginnings,
including early years in a communal apartment. According to him, in his youth,
he was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played on the Soviet
screen by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov.
His mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina, was a factory worker and his father, Vladimir
Spiridonovich Putin, was conscripted into the Soviet Navy, where he served in
the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. His father subsequently served with the
NKVD in a sabotage group during the Second World War. Two elder brothers
were born in the mid-1930s; one died within a few months of birth; the second
succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad. His paternal grandfather,
Spiridon Putin, had been Vladimir Lenin's and Joseph Stalin's personal cook.
Putin's surname translates "man of path" into English.
Putin graduated from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the
Leningrad State University in 1975. His final thesis was on an international law
theme - Russian
Thereafter he was recruited to the KGB. At the University he also became a
member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until
the party was dissolved in December 1991.
He worked in the Leningrad and Leningrad region Directorate of the KGB, where he
became acquainted with Sergei Ivanov.
In 1976 he completed the KGB retraining course in Okhta, Leningrad. The
available information about his first years at the KGB is somewhat contradictory;
according to some sources, he completed the other retraining course at the
Dzerzhinsky KGB Higher School in Moscow and then in 1985 - the Red Banner Yuri
Andropov KGB Institute in Moscow (now the Academy of Foreign Intelligence),
whereupon (or earlier) he joined the KGB First Chief Directorate (Foreign
intelligence branch).
From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany, in what
he regards as a minor position. Following the collapse of the East German regime,
Putin was recalled to the Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June
1991 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad
State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov. In his new position,
Putin grew reacquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad. Sobchak
served as an Assistant Professor during Putin's university years and was one of
Putin's lecturers. Putin formally resigned from the state security services on
August 20, 1991, during the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev.