Vladimir Putin: 7 Moments That Marked the Russian President's 20 Years in the Kremlin

Vladimir Putin, the controversial leader of Russia, turned 20 on Friday under the reins of the largest country in the world.

Over the past two decades he has been "strong man" who has again moved Russia on the map of world politics.

Its many internal reforms, ranging from tax cuts to expanding property rights, have changed the lives of millions of Russians affected by the poverty and instability that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.

Moreover, many point out that he has led his country over the last 20 years to a new authoritarianism, inflexible in its suppression of dissent and its military or political incursions in Crimea, the Middle East or the US elections.

Admirers and critics do not deny that he was one of the most influential figures in his history in the complex world of Russian politics, but 20 years later, his tenure begins to reveal cracks visible in the center of his power.

The huge popularity indices that characterize it for two decades are in decline and, in recent weeks, Moscow has seen a series of demonstrations showing a well-known face but until now silenced: the growing nonconformity of 39, a sector of the population.

In BBC Mundo, we present some of the moments and circumstances that marked Vladimir Putin's rise to power in Russia over the past two decades.

It was something that almost nobody expected on New Year's Eve.

On 31 December 1999, in a surprise speech to the nation, the then Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, announced his resignation and left in his place the Prime Minister he had appointed four months earlier: Vladimir Putin .

It was only the beginning for him to become the undisputed leader of Russia.

"Putin, as head of the intelligence services, was a key figure in Russian politics and power even before becoming prime minister," BBC News's Yuri Maloveryan told BBC News.

In August 1999, when he became second in command of Russia, his approval rate was about 31%, according to a survey of the independent Levada Center.

Five months later, when he was already president, he stood at 84%.

Under his administration, economic growth rates were high, with a GDP increase of 72 percent, according to official figures, and a substantial reduction in poverty.

According to the Levada Center, its popularity has never dropped 60% for years, although a new survey puts it at 31.7% last July, a controversial outcome that the Kremlin rejected.

In September 1999, a series of mysterious bomb attacks in apartment buildings left hundreds dead in Moscow and Volgodonsk.

According to various experts, it is the reaction to these attacks that has consolidated Putin's internal vision as a "strong man" with a "hard hand" and able to control the threats of internal "terrorism".

The Russian army then bombed Mansalva Grozni, which led to the second war against the Chechen separatists.

This fact served as a justification for strengthening security and control in the main Russian cities, thus considerably increasing its popularity.

"Putin has mounted the wave of xenophobia that has led to these attacks and the insecurity that they have left to present themselves as the powerful leader who" would save the country, "Maloveryan said.

For many, it was redefining and placing Russia's relations with the West at a critical level.

In April 2014, Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula following mbadive protests in Ukraine that led to the resignation of Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

The annexation of Crimea by Russia led to a severe condemnation of the West and a wave of economic sanctions against the Kremlin, still in force, which affected the pockets of the Russian population .

"In the psychology of Russian power, Ukraine is part of Russia and Putin has inherited one way or another of this mentality of wanting to recover the territories that previously belonged to the country. Russian empire, "said Maloveryan.

But before invading Crimea, Putin's Kremlin had launched a war against Georgia in 2008, which marked the return of a more aggressive Russia to world politics.

"This is the moment when he chose, not at random, to leave behind years of moral humiliation after the collapse of the Soviet Union and to show that things had changed," said John Lough, expert at British Chatham House.

For Georgian political badyst Gela Vasadze, this was also the case that presented a new face to the Russian president.

"In 2008, many in Europe and the United States thought that Vladimir Putin was only a good guy with whom he had to do good business," he already said to the BBC.

In December 2007, a speech by Putin in the German city of Munich was going to change Russia 's position with regard to the rest of the world.

During his speech at the Conference on Security, he questioned about the existence of a "unipolar world" in which the United States and Europe would be the main voices.

From then on, he said, it would be necessary to have Russia and the rest of the world.

According to the Kremlin, a "multipolar world" then began.

"This fact marked Putin's future foreign policy and its relations with the rest of the world," said Maloveryan, who will be visible later in different parts of the world.

In 2011, for example, the Arab Spring arrived in Syria and, in the fall of 2015, the presidency of Bashar Al Asad was more than a thread with US participation in the war.

It was then that the Kremlin decided to intervene in the war and that Syria became the main scene of the combat operations of the Russian armed forces, as well as its most important "training center" in the world .

A few years later, Washington's positions would also be questioned by Russia in its own area of ​​influence.

In Latin America and in the face of growing tensions with the United States and White House calls to Nicolás Maduro to leave power, Russia has sent two aircraft to Caracas with military equipment and a command superior, who are expected to work on training tasks. .

And for months, Russia has threatened "devastating consequences for the region and for global security" if an American intervention occurred. in Venezuela.

The 2016 elections in the United States will not only go down in history because they meant the arrival of the White House to Donald Trump, but also because of the scandal generated by the so-called Russian intervention in the elections.

According to Washington intelligence, Russian hackers in the service of the Kremlin have tried to influence the outcome of the vote and favor a candidate: Trump.

Russia has repeatedly denied its participation in hacking, but the fact has further aggravated relations between the two countries and led to multiple sanctions.

Since then, new complaints about alleged interference by Russia in electoral situations have been reported in several countries and have also raised questions about the influence Putin is seeking on the world stage.

"Russia under Putin's mandate not only seeks to find new allies on the world stage, but also to change the international order itself," Maloveryan said.

The demonstrations that have rocked Moscow in recent weeks are not the first signs of opposition that Putin's executive has discovered over the last 20 years.

A few years after his government, the president was heavily blamed for his management after the sinking of the Kursk submarine or when Islamist groups took a theater and a school and the rescue operations resulted in hundreds of deaths. .

But what has earned him more criticism is what his opponents see as a setback for democratic progress in the country after the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

International organizations such as Human Rights Watch denounce the growing repression for religious and political reasons in Russia, which has had among its main spokesmen the leader of the opposition Alexei Navalny.

His government was also blamed for restricting freedom of expression, trying to silence dissident journalists and controlling the country's mainstream media.

For many, another undeniable moment marked by Putin's Russia was his energy conservation strategy.

If, in 2000, he won the presidential elections with 52.94% of the vote, more than 71.31% of Russians voted in 2004 for him.

But in 2008, unable to run for a third term because it was not allowed by the Constitution, Putin promoted the candidacy of Deputy Prime Minister of the time, Dmitry Medvedev, who after to have won the elections, had appointed him prime minister.

"Between December 2011 and May 2012, there were other mbad demonstrations in Moscow organized by Russian liberals, disappointed by their naive hope that Medvedev could change something and then see that Putin was back," he said. said Maloveryan.

"This has led to further tightening of the regime," he added.

Then, in March 2012, he was re-elected president with 63.60% of the vote and last year, among the growing accusations of fraud, he repeated his victory with 76.69%.

The journalist and researcher Steven Lee Myers emphasizes in his biography "The New Tsar: The Ascension and Reign of Vladimir Putin" that the rise of the Russian ruler over the past 20 years has also marked the return of the Autocracy, the concentration of powers and the cult of personality that characterized imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union.

For many, the big question is what will happen in 2024, when Putin's current tenure ends a quarter century after it began.