Abuse of power, annexation of Crimea, assassination attempts on his opponents and invasion of Ukraine: Since his rise to power more than two decades ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin has often sparked outrage beyond borders of Russia. A look back at his reign in six key moments.
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President until 2036?
In 1999, Putin was nominated by then Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The latter will resign a few months later and Putin will become interim president. He was elected for the first time in March 2000, then re-elected in 2004.
Unable to seek a third consecutive term, it was his dolphin who succeeded him in 2018 as president, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin then became prime minister again, a position he held for four years.
After this break, he returned to the Kremlin, this time for a six-year term. Then, in 2020, he amended the Constitution to be able to serve two additional terms. He could therefore be at the head of the Federation until 2036.
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“Anti-terrorist operation” in Chechnya
In 1999, terrorist attacks reduced residential towers in Moscow to dust. Then Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin affirms that Chechens are behind these attacks, which however have never been claimed.
Vladimir Putin then unleashes a war, or rather an “anti-terrorist operation”, against Chechnya, explains Guillaume Sauvé, guest researcher at the Center for International Studies and Research at the University of Montreal (CÉRIUM).
“Putin, who was a complete stranger a few weeks earlier, introduces himself [au peuple russe] like a warlord,” says the specialist in Russia and the former USSR.
Chechnya, which emerged from this war in pieces, will be rebuilt with money from Moscow, says Mr. Sauvé.
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The blitzkrieg from Georgia
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is reminiscent of that which occurred in Georgia in 2008.
Like Ukraine, Georgia wanted to join NATO at the time, which was opposed by Vladimir Putin, who sent his soldiers to the pro-Russian regions of the country.
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“There is a war which intervenes in the name of the protection of the local population against the Georgian State”, explains Guillaume Sauvé. In a few days, after attacks led by Georgia, the Russians manage to take control of the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
“The Georgians were ill-prepared,” says UQAM history professor Jean Lévesque. He adds that the Ukrainians are much better prepared. Vladimir Putin, however, seems to have bigger ambitions with Ukraine, he continues.
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The annexation of Crimea
Crimea is a historically pro-Russian region bordered by the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. In 2014, as Ukraine aspired to join NATO, it was annexed to Russia after a referendum that was contested by the international community.
AFP
As Jean Lévesque explains, Vladimir Putin had every interest in taking control of this region, which benefits from an ideal geographical location. “If Crimea became a NATO port, seeing NATO naval bases was unacceptable to Putin, politically and strategically.”
“The message was that if you [l’Ukraine] join NATO, we’ll cut you up, and that’s kind of what he’s doing today,” says the UQAM professor, adding that the annexation of Crimea was done with very little resistance, unlike the current invasion.
Multiple assassination attempts
The least we can say is that Vladimir Putin does not like his opponents. His list of enemies is long, very long even.
In 2018, for example, Moscow was accused of ordering the assassination of ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. This former colonel in the Russian army’s intelligence service was convicted in 2006 of “high treason” by the Kremlin, who accused him of having sold information to the British. Skripal moved to England in 2010 after an exchange of spies between Moscow, London and Washington.
AFP
The bench on which the ex-spy was found.
In March 2018, Sergei and his daughter Loulia were found unconscious on a bench in a small town in England. They had been poisoned by a neuroparalytic agent from the Novichok family, a product from a Soviet nuclear chemical program.
This story is reminiscent of that of Alexander Litvinenko, this former Russian secret agent fatally poisoned with polonium-210 in 2006.
The Navalny affair
Vladimir Putin’s most famous opponent is undoubtedly Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption activist known for his investigations targeting Russian elites.
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In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalized in Siberia. He had suffered an illness on a plane after being poisoned.
At the beginning of 2021, he returns to Russia, knowing that he will be arrested as soon as he arrives in the country. He has since been held in a prison in Russia, where he is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for an alleged fraud case.