Wetterauer newspaper
Political
Stand: December 19, 2024, 10:06 a.m
Von: Christian Stör
Press Split
Vladimir Putin has been the strong man in Russia for more than 20 years. Impressions of a career.
1 / 25 On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to attack Ukraine. He is not only President of Russia, but also a warlord – even if in Russia the war in Ukraine is only called a military “special operation” according to official interpretation. © Mikhail Klimentyev/Imago
2 / 25 From 1975 to 1982, Putin, born on October 7, 1952, was a KGB officer; from 1984 to 1985 he attended the KGB College in Moscow. From 1985 he worked in the GDR, mainly in Dresden. Then we went back to St. Petersburg. From July 25, 1998 to August 1999, Putin was director of the domestic intelligence service FSB. In this capacity he met with Fleet Chief Vladimir Kuroedov (right) in November 1998. © Stringer/dpa
3 / 25 A black and white photo shows Vladimir Putin in 1992, aged 40, attending the opening of the 1992 Honda Motor Show in St. Petersburg. Two years later, one of the vice mayors appointed him as the city’s first vice mayor. His political rise took shape. © Russian Look/IMAGO
4 / 25 During his first year as first vice mayor of the city of St. Petersburg in 1994, Vladimir Putin was photographed in his office. He was 42 years old at the time. Nothing is known of any physical complaints from this time. Putin has also been sporty since his youth and, among other things, practiced the martial art of judo, in which he earned a black belt. © Russian Look/IMAGO
5 / 25 This photo was taken three years later, in 1997, and shows Vladimir Putin – then 45 years old – with Anatoly Sobchak, the former mayor of St. Petersburg. © Russian Look/IMAGO
6 / 25 In 1999, Putin took over the office of Prime Minister for the first time – with the option of succeeding President Boris Yeltsin (left). When Yeltsin resigned from office on December 31, 1999, Putin also took over the presidential duties on an interim basis. In May 2000, Putin was regularly elected President of Russia. © dpa
7 / 25 In 2000, Vladimir Putin was elected President of the Russian Federation for the first time. The photo shows the then 48-year-old together with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) in Berlin. The two would later form a close friendship that lasted beyond Schröder’s political career. © Thomas Imo/IMAGO
8 / 25 Vladimir Putin during a training session in Sochi in 2019. The Russian president is considered a big judo fan and was awarded the title of sixth dan of “Kodokan judo” in Tokyo in 2000. © Mikhail Metzel/Imago
9 / 25 On May 7, 2000, Putin took the oath of office under the watchful eye of Boris Yeltsin. With the exception of a period as head of government from 2008 to 2012, Putin has held the office of President of the Russian Federation since then. © Imago
10 / 25 In September 2000, Putin moved to the USA. Bill Clinton (right) was the first US president he would face in the coming years. in his With the then still incumbent US President B © Imago
11 / 25 As Russia’s president, Putin traveled to Germany in September 2001 for a three-day state visit. The then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (left) also welcomed him in the foyer of the Taschenbergpalais in the Saxon capital of Dresden. The two obviously got along extremely well even back then. The friendship still exists today. © Jan-Peter Kasper/dpa
12 / 25 Putin likes to play psychological games – as he did in 2007 with Chancellor Angela Merkel. At their meeting in Sochi on the Black Sea, Putin let a Labrador dog run around without a leash during a joint press conference. Merkel, who was once bitten by a dog in her youth, was visibly uncomfortable. © Dmitry Astakhov/dpa
13 / 25 George W. Bush (right) was the second US president with whom Putin had to deal. In April 2008, the two heads of state met on the grounds of Putin’s summer residence Bocharov Ruchei. © Imago
14 / 25 On May 7, 2008, Dmitry Medvedev replaced Putin as President of Russia after two terms in office. One day later, the Duma elected Putin as the new head of government at the suggestion of the new president. Putin remained the strong man in this position. © dpa
15 / 25 In 2009, Vladimir Putin was photographed shirtless sitting on a horse as he rode through the southern Siberian Republic of Tuva. Putin cultivated his macho image with photos like these. According to information from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, he wanted to have an impact on the Russian population and also demonstrate internationally that he is a strong opponent. © epa Alexey Druzhinyn
16 / 25 Dressed in olive green hunting trousers and a matching sun hat, Vladimir Putin presents himself while fishing in the Siberian mountains in 2017. If the Russian President has his way, his upper body must remain bare. This applies to riding as well as fishing. © Aleksey Nikolskyi/Imago
17 / 25 On May 7, 2012, Putin was re-elected president. His relationship with US President Barack Obama was characterized by distance. This was also the case in September 2015 at a United Nations event in New York. © Amanda Voisard/dpa
18 / 25 Vladimir Putin in a camouflage-colored diving suit during a trip to the Russian Republic of Tuva in Siberia in 2017. The photo shows the Russian president taking a breather. © Alexei Nikolsky/Imago
19 / 25 When Donald Trump won the 2016 US election against Hillary Clinton, Russia probably had a hand in it. Putin certainly had his reasons. In any case, he got along well with Donald Trump. In November 2017, they warmly greeted each other at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Da Nang, Vietnam. © Mikhail Klimentyev/dpa
20 / 25 Under Putin, Russia and China have recently become increasingly closer. An important date was July 4, 2017, when Chinese President Xi Jiping visited the Kremlin in Moscow. At that time, several treaties and economic agreements were signed. © Sergei Ilnitsky/dpa
21 / 25 This is how Putin now receives his guests – especially those from the West. On February 15, 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled to Moscow. At that time the war in Ukraine had not yet started. But Putin was not impressed by Scholz. © Kremlin Pool/Imago
22 / 25 Putin intensified military conflicts in his third term in office. Since March 21, 2014, Russia has considered Crimea to be part of its own territory, and since September 2015, the Russian Air Force has been supporting Syrian President Assad in military operations in Syria in the civil war there. © Sergei Ilnitsky/dpa
23 / 25 On the occasion of the Geneva summit conference, Putin met with US President Joe Biden for talks on June 16, 2021. The Russian troop build-up on the border with Ukraine was already an issue back then. © Denis Balibouse/dpa
24 / 25 The summit discussion was of little use. On February 24, 2022, the war began with the invasion of Russian troops into neighboring Ukraine. Putin probably already knew it in Geneva. © Denis Balibouse/dpa
25 / 25 Even as the Kremlin leader recovers near Russian waters, the cameras of the Russian state press are not far away. Otherwise they would simply miss snapshots of a swimming Vladimir Putin, like this one in 2017. © Alexei Nikolsky/Imago
Moscow – Since the beginning of Ukraine war puts a person back in the center of perception: Wladimir Putin Russia’s president and undisputed ruler in the Kremlin. Follow Putin’s rise to become a strong man here Politics in Russia and see the most bizarre photos of the president in decades.
