Vladimir Putin

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. After graduating from law school in 1975, he served in the KGB for 15 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. From 1990 to 1996 he held several posts in the Leningrad (from 1991, St. Petersburg) city government. Moving to Moscow and the national government in 1996, he held high staff positions in the Yeltsin administration and in 1998 became head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB's successor. Putin was chosen by Yeltsin to succeed Sergei Stepashin as prime minister in August, 1999. Putin quickly became popular in Russia for his September Invasion of Chechnya in response the Invasion of Dagestan by...