Name : Partini Cakrawati

NPM : 202030010

Class : IR - A

TASK 4

Vladimir Putin
Russian leader Vladimir Putin was born in 1952 in St. Petersburg (then known as
Leningrad). After graduating from Leningrad State University, Putin began his career in the KGB
as an intelligence officer in 1975. Putin rose to the top ranks of the Russian government after
joining President Boris Yeltsin’s administration in 1998, becoming prime minister in 1999 before
taking over as president. Putin was again appointed Russian prime minister in 2008, and
retained his hold on power by earning reelection to the presidency in 2012.

For the Russian oligarchs and much of the West, Putin was the president who would
help secure the fragile gains of Russia’s market transition. For most of the Russian population,
he was the leader who would help bring order to a country riven by chaos. Putin appeared to
be a Russian Everyman, a seemingly nondescript midlevel former KGB officer who pledged to
restore the Russian state. But he was a chameleon, and therein lay his power. Behind him stood
a ruthless caste of security men. Instead of strengthening democratic institutions, these men
usurped them to shore up their own position. Then, once they’d taken over the country’s
economy and legal system, Putin’s men sought to rewrite the rules and undermine the West.

As a leader, Putin respects strength, discipline, and control, and he exudes it, best
showcased during his annual Valdai retreats and news conferences. Putin’s background as a
KGB intelligence officer has colored his entire professional life. The KGB shaped his ethos and
his sense of identity—the embodiment of a boyhood dream. Martial arts and the study of Judo
has likely shaped Putin’s personality as much as any other activity. A student of Judo since age
10, Putin eloquently spoke (in a video made by him in 2008) of its virtues of discipline, respect
for one’s teachers and fellow students, and humility.