Who is Vladimir Putin?

Vladimir putin grew up in the aftermath of the second world war in 1945 the u.s the uk and the soviet union met to shape the new world seven years on he was born in what was then leningrad and is now saint petersburg by the 70s putin had studied law and then joined the russian secret service the kgb at this time the soviet union's influence reached across the communist nations of eastern europe and in the 80s putin was posted to dresden in east germany from there he witnessed the fall of the berlin wall the fall of communism this was a visceral example of people power to putin though the demise of the soviet union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century and while that demise was negotiated putin was heading home to find a place for himself in the new russia russia's president in the 90s boris yeltsin would help him do that he made putin head of the security services then putin was elected prime minister then in 1999 yeltsin resigned putin was president and his way of operating was clear from the start tightening the grip over media was one of the first things that he did and also the lack of genuine opposition because these critics either have been in exile or dead or are facing prosecution putin's focus on his own power and wealth was relentless by 2008 when his two terms were up dmitry medvedev replaced him as president but putin became prime minister and everyone knew who was in charge by 2012 he was back as president again and putin's indifference to democracy is matched by his view of sovereignty in 2008 russia invaded georgia to support separatists in 2014 russia annexed crimea from ukraine it supported separatists in eastern ukraine and in 2018 a former russian secret service operative was poisoned in salisbury the uk says russian intelligence was responsible to putin the rules are for him to make he said as much himself i hope no one will cross russia's red line but in each case we are the ones who will decide where the red line is and russia's right to decide routes back to putin's view of what he's seen in his lifetime in 2015 he addressed the un and said instead of the triumph of democracy and progress we've got violence poverty and social disaster nobody cares a bit about human rights putin's contempt was directed at western democracy we've seen though how little he cares for democracy in russia and ukraine despite this years earlier the west talked of trusting him i'll answer the question i looked the man in the eye i found him to be very straightforward i was able to get a sense of his soul we're getting a sense of it too this week as we did a few years ago when putin spoke of his childhood telling us 50 years ago the leningrad street taught me a rule if a fight is inevitable you have to throw the first punch there was nothing inevitable about this week but ukraine has felt that first punch a punch putin justifies in his country's interests but which very much serve his and as we've watched the violence i think back to that criticism of the west that the un in 2015 putin said i merged ask those who created this situation do you at least realize now what you've done the world is now asking the same of him and everything about putin's life suggests yes he does realize what he's done.

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Junaid Chaudhary