VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Poland's marking of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war has once again shown that the country’s leaders are unable to bury the ghosts of the past and move forward (“War wounds still cause pain as Poland deals with neighbours”, September 1).
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a meeting on September 1 2009 that Sofia would respond to Putin’s request for clarity on Bulgaria’s stance on joint energy projects with Russia after it had studied details of contracts signed by its predecessor government.
Ten years ago on Sunday, Russia's Duma confirmed Vladimir Putin as prime minister. The vote took place only one week after then-President Boris Yeltsin had nominated the little-known former KGB operative for the post. Yeltsin's surprise resignation only four months later left Mr. Putin as acting president and paved the way for his election as head of state in March 2000. This swift and far-from-transparent ascent to the pinnacle of Russian power was a sign of things to come.
He has used a vigorous image and ruthless political strategy to recentralize state power. Some analysts expect he will soon formally return to the presidency.
If Vladimir Putin made one mistake as President of Russia – and you probably believe he made a great many more – it was to describe the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century".
From a bare-chested prime minister in Siberia to Russian subs patrolling the U.S. East Coast, Russia has one thing on its mind — reclaiming the world power status it lost when the Berlin wall crumbled.
On August 9, 1999, President Boris Yeltsin named then-unknown Vladimir Putin as Russia's acting PM. How has that decision changed the country and Putin himself? What were the grounds for it? Experts speak out.
The russians obviously cannot get enough of their prime minister. They warmly welcome any chance to see him semi-naked, as the steppes resound to the thundering gallop of Irish people fleeing in the opposite direction.
After the conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out a year ago, each side accused the other of atrocities, but the Russians went farther. They spoke of marauding Georgian soldiers who systemically killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia. Georgia was guilty not just of war crimes, they said.
He's been swimming in lakes, riding in mountains, camping in Siberia - and that was just one day of Vlad-imir Putin's summer break. A few days earlier, finding himself at a loose end, he dived in a mini-submarine and attached a transmitter to a whale.
