PUTIN, V. V.

KGB foreign-intelligence officer (Dresden, GDR, 1985–1990). After the Soviet collapse, deputy mayor of St. Petersburg under Anatoly Sobchak (1991–1996). Moved to Moscow in 1996; appointed director of the FSB (the KGB's domestic successor) in July 1998. Promoted to Prime Minister on 9 August 1999, became Acting President on 31 December 1999, and was elected in March 2000. Has held real power continuously since — over twenty-six years and counting.

Constitutional limits required him to step aside in 2008; Dmitry Medvedev served as nominal president while Putin held the prime-minister role, then they swapped back in 2012. The Constitution was further amended in July 2020 to «zero out» Putin's terms, allowing him to remain in office until 2036. The March 2024 election, held one month after Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony, returned Putin with an officially reported 87% of the vote; major opposition figures by that point were dead, jailed, or exiled.

Domestic dissent has been progressively criminalised: the 2012 Bolotnaya protests led to long prison sentences for ordinary participants; Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was outlawed as «extremist» in 2021; following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Articles 207.3 and 280.3 of the Criminal Code made any public contradiction of the Defence Ministry's account of the war punishable by up to 15 years. The Wagner mercenary rebellion of June 2023 ended with the death of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash exactly two months later.

Independent investigators have documented assets attributable to Putin or his immediate circle through corporate proxies: the Cape Idokopas «palace» near Gelendzhik (FBK, 2021; Project, 2024 update), valued at ≈ $1.1 bn; the 82 m superyacht Graceful, removed from German waters days before the 2022 sanctions; and the LLCInvest corporate network of 80+ companies controlling ≈ $4.5 bn in palaces, ski resorts, yachts and accounts (Meduza × OCCRP, 2022).