did you know that a shy boy raised amid street fights and living with Foster families would become one of the most powerful and feared leaders in the world get ready to discover how Vladimir Putin a man of humble origin and turbulent past Rose to the top of power in Russia and shaped the destiny of a global superpower his story is filled with decisive moments controversies and disputes that turned him into a central figure in global geopolitics how did he get there and what is the cost of his legacy he is Vladimir Putin one of the
most well-known individuals on the planet adored by some and detested by others he has commanded Russia for more than 20 years and transformed the nation from an underdeveloped State on the brink of collapse into a global power from the memory of a fragmented country during the collapse of the USSR Russia has transformed into to a nation whose capital Moscow is now home to the highest number of billionaires in the world according to Forbes however everything comes at a price and his critics argue that it has been a very high one Vladimir Putin is one of
the most controversial figures in contemporary history but how did an abandoned boy from such humble beginnings become one of the most influential men in the world how did he evolve from a street spy to the president of Russia what are his achievements and what do his opponents accuse him of in this video we will explore his impressive and controversial Journey his full name is Vladimir vladimirovich Putin and psychologists and intelligence agencies in the United States have struggled with little success to uncover the flaws in Putin's complex personality but as Fiona Hill a former White House
adviser mentioned only what Putin allows is known about him and so it is however some aspects of his childhood have been revealed Putin was born into a modest family in Leningrad in 1952 his father was a decorated War veteran who worked in a factory Putin was an only child but from an early age he was separated from his biological family and had to live with two different Foster families the last of these a couple from St Petersburg became His official adoptive parents and according to several biographies of the leader this deeply marked Putin's personality making
him a reserved person with a deep distrust of the world mainly because in the neighborhood where he grew up he was not well accepted and frequently got into fights with other local boys who were almost always bigger and stronger because of this from a young age he developed a great passion for Judo in which he is an eighth Dan one of the highest levels in this martial art Vladimir Putin himself declared in an interview in 2015 50 years ago on the streets of Leningrad they taught me a rule if a fight is inevitable you must
strike first this childhood distant from his biological parents with two substitute families and Street confrontations made him distrust people and become an isolated teenager to this day Putin himself has revealed that the only friends he trusts are his two pets his Labrador named Cony and his Bulgarian Shepherd dog named Buffy as he grew up Putin was fascinated by spy novels and television shows while still in school he recounts how one day leaving school he went to the KGB intelligence Security Agency and asked how he could join them the KGB was the main secret police agency
of the Soviet Union equivalent to the CIA in the United States and the FBI combined the KGB agents told Putin that to join them he would have to dedicate himself and study law and that is exactly what he did he enrolled at Leningrad State University where he graduated with honors as a lawyer he then spent 17 years as a mid-level agent working for the KGB it was during this time that he had an experience that some experts could consider a turning point in his life while at the KGB he met leud Mila a disguised flight
attendant who also worked for the KGB with whom he married and had two daughters Maria and E Catarina after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Russia fell into the hands of Boris yelton a man who had long aspired to become president and who managed to come to power in Russia by Leading a coup against Mikel gorbachov yelton became president of the Russian Federation but like many politicians in the world he ended up being a total disappointment when due to his radical reforms millions of Russians were left homeless and plunged into misery during the
Boris yelon era Vladimir Putin began to venture into politics and in August 1999 yelon appointed Putin as the prime minister of Russia the fifth prime minister in less than 2 years in Russia the prime minister is the second highest official in hierarchy and reports directly to the president then in a surprising move yelton resigned as president and appointed Putin as acting president on New Year's Eve 1999 Putin won the elections in March at first everyone thought that Boris yelson had designated Putin to the presidency to defend him the conflict in chetna where Russian troops were
fighting separatists who wanted the Region's Independence was beginning to worsen and his popularity was declining yelon had left Putin with a real bomb about to explode one of Putin's first actions as President of Russia was to Grant Boris yelton a pardon guaranteeing him immunity from any criminal or administrative investigation including the protection of all his documents residences and possessions therefore the prevailing view was that Putin was boris's human shield to protect his own back and to be the scapegoat when Russia eventually fragmented however Putin had different plans Putin took over Russia at one of its
most critical moments the country was immersed in a conflict with chetna additionally Russia's wealthiest magnates the oligarchs of the yelson era were the true rulers with more influence than Boris yelson and evidently more power than the seemingly novice politician Vladimir Putin so Putin sought a p with them according to the Council on Foreign Relations in the year 2000 Putin assured the oligarchs that he would not interfere in their businesses or nationalize their companies as long as they stayed away from politics and did not challenge or criticize him as president and to make this clear Putin
decided to arrest and confiscate all the assets of the then richest man in Russia after that all the other oligarchs chose to be Putin's allies but Putin still faced a bigger challenge the second chin war in which everyone bet would be his downfall was an endless conflict but Vladimir Putin used the conflict to cement his reputation as a war leader in 2002 a theater in Moscow was seized by 40 chin militants led by a military commander during the harrowing 3-day episode 129 of the 9912 hostages lost their lives this was a decisive moment for Putin
and many expected his internal approval to plummet but his Relentless handling of The Siege and refusal to negotiate with the hijackers further strengthened his popularity his approval rating Rose to 83% after the conflict ended but how being only an interim president did Putin manage to stay in power for more than 20 years in theory Russia is a democratic Nation but Putin's opponents disagree since the year 2000 Putin has reshaped all Russian laws that prevented him from staying in command of his country for years concentrating all absolute power around a single figure himself and to achieve
this without causing discontent in the country Putin knew how to manipulate the power dynamics in the most controversial events in Russian history for example after the infamous bezin School hostage crisis in 2004 where a group of about 30 armed islamists stormed a school taking 1,81 people hostage most of them children Putin decided instead of negotiating with the hijackers to launch an intense operation led by Russian special security forces in which more than 334 people were killed and after this operation Putin passed a law that granted him more Authority in the government arguing that it was
essential to protect Russia while his popularity increased and in 20 2 Putin had already won his third presidential election in another six-year term this election was highly controversial because the constitutionality of his reelection for a third term was questioned and critics alleged electoral fraud but officially Putin obtained almost 64% of the votes 2 years after these criticisms of electoral fraud in March 2014 Putin captured the world's attention when he annexed Crimea to Russia in one of the most complex and controversial geopolitical moves of the year once again raising his popularity to new heights Putin's opponents
accuse him of using electoral fraud and manipulation of electoral laws to perpetuate himself in power over the past 22 years these accusations intensified even further in July 2020 when Russia held a dubious referendum on Constitutional Amendments before the Russian vote in 2020 it was imagined that Putin would leave power in 2024 however after receiving the population's approval in the referendum he could remain in office until the year 2036 but regardless of whether the results of the Russian referendum were manipulated or not the holding of this event allowed Putin to neutralize the opposition accusing him of
seeking to perpetuate himself in power illegitimately after the referendum at least he turned something illegal into legal this is one of Putin's main critics his name is alexe nalni and he has been the leader of numerous public demonstrations he has also produced a significant amount of content and accusations against Putin accusing him of corruption authoritarianism and many other offenses recently alexe navali survived an assassination attempt by poisoning that almost cost him his life while in Berlin he was poisoned with a chemical agent from which he was saved by a true Miracle but after leaving the
hospital and returning to Moscow in January 2021 he was immediately detained and is currently serving a sentence in a Russian prison like naali others have faced similar Fates in recent years the number of political prisoners in Russia has grown most of them were detained for crimes such as participating in unauthorized meeting meetings however despite the risk of arrest and imprisonment people continue to participate in protests and it is that President Putin quickly became one of the most powerful and feared politicians in the world he does not easily tolerate opposition protests or rebellions against him many
Kremlin critics have died from poisoning in recent years including Anna politkovskaya who was murdered at the entrance of her apartment in 2006 shortly after writing an article about the corruption of the Russian army in chetna the day she was murdered coincided with Putin's birthday but he denied any involvement days after the journalist's death Alexander litvinenko a former KGB agent and activist against Putin's Administration died weeks after drinking a poisoned cup of tea in a London hotel in 2006 a British investigation attributed the murder to Russian intelligence agents another case is that of Vladimir karura a
strong Kremlin critic who was hospitalized for what his wife described as acute poisoning by an undefined substance Putin's critics accuse him of being Behind These murders because these poisoning techniques were typical of the KGB during the Soviet Union times and because these murders are often carried out with a high level of skill a skill that only Russian Security Services possess in any case Putin has carefully crafted an image of a strong man with hundreds of images of him hunting diving in icy waters but his character is undoubtedly marked by his past and childhood and his
legacy to humanity will depend on who writes his story for his critics it will be a legacy of murders innocent victims and suffering and for his supporters it will be a legacy of Russian expansion and patriotism
