The Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989, and soon after Putin and his family returned to Russia. By this point Putin held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB. However, the KGB was nearing the end of its existence, and Putin was able to find work at the State University of Saint Petersburg. He was no ordinary professor though, he was still working with the KGB. Part of his job included keeping an eye out for students who showed promise as potential new KGB recruits. Through this job, Putin was also able to reconnect with his former professor Anatoly Sobchak. Sobchak was elected the Mayor of St. Petersburg in 1991, and Putin joined his team as an adviser. He worked for Sobchak until 1996. When Sobchak lost re-election, Putin could have opted to continue working for his successor, but Putin believed that taking a job with Sobchak’s political opponent would be disloyal, and he instead chose to move to Moscow to begin working with the Yeltsin Administration.

Politics

During Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, Putin rose through the ranks, first serving as Deputy Chief Administrator for the Kremlin, Russia’s version of the White House, and by 1999 he was named the Secretary of the Security Council and became Yeltsin’s chief advisor on matters of foreign relations and intelligence. But is was then, Putin’s career really got a boost. Yeltsin decided he didn’t want to keep his current Prime Minister, so he got rid of him.That was in August of 1999, and Putin was the beneficiary of this decision as Yeltsin named Vladimir Putin to the post. Yeltsin offered Putin the position of as a “Prime Minister with prospects,” somewhat foreshadowing the next step in Putin’s career, because only months after naming Putin as Prime Minister, Boris Yeltsin himself stepped down and Vladimir Putin became the acting President of Russia in December 1999. Then, only three months later in March of 2000, Putin was officially elected and became President of Russia in his own right.

Ten opponents ran against him for President, but he won, and for the first time in Russia’s history there was a peaceful transfer of power to a Democratically-elected President. Putin used his first term to advocate for certain international policies, including approval of the START II arms treaty, and improving relations with China. Putin was also initially supportive of the United States’ War on Terror that followed the 9.11 terrorist attacks, but he did not support the United States’ invasion of Iraq. During Putin’s first summer in power, tragedy struck Russia when the Kursk Submarine sank in the Barents Sea in August. Putin was on vacation when the sinking occurred, and he did not immediately return home to address the sinking and the deaths of all 118 crew members who had been on board. Then, when asked what went wrong for the Kursk, Putin replied starkly that: 'It sank.' Distraught and angry, Russians were attacking their President for his handling, or lack thereof, of the Kursk disaster, with some even accusing him of leaving sailors to die when a rescue might still be possible. Despite that, opinion polls showed that overall his image did not sustain much damage from the tragedy. Indeed, four years later, the Kursk tragedy did not affect his re-election at all. In 2004, the Russians re-elected Putin to a second term as their President. They were apparently pleased with the job he had been doing, as Putin received over 70% of the vote.

Second Term

During his first term in office, Putin had focused on economic reforms. Having denounced communism, he instead supported an economic system that was essentially capitalism with very strict regulations and oversight. After years of economic struggle, Russia was finally beginning to see a stabilizing and even growing economy under Putin. Some reports put Russia’s growth during his first term at 7% annually. He’s still remembered favorably for this growth, though it came with increased nationalization of industry and, in part because of the mid-2000’s global financial crash, the growth did not last. But in a country whose economy was in disarray for nearly the entire decade before Putin’s rise to power, an era of growth in which disposable income nearly doubled was reason for the people to think positively of Putin. Putin continued to work on economic policies in his first term, but also made strides in foreign relations, including making a historic trip to Israel. This was the first by a Russian leader to the country.

Conversations between Putin and Israeli leaders focused largely on security issues. The trip garnered much attention around the world, as it came in the midst of strengthening ties between Russia and Israel, though the two nations disagreed on topics such as the Russian sale of missiles to Syria. The trip was also seen as a move by Putin to help secure Russia’s position as a key diplomatic actor in any Mideast peace discussions or agreements.Security issues were present not just abroad though, and homeland security would become a major focus for Putin. Unfortunately, this is something that became all too clear during the horrific tragedy at the Beslan School in 2004. In September, terrorists held over 1,000 people hostage at the Beslan School in North Ossetia. Nearly 800 of these hostages were children.For three days, the terrorists, demanding Chechnyan independence from Russia, held these people hostage.

The situation ended tragically when tanks, rockets, and other artillery were used by the Russian military to try to clear the school. Special forces entered the school after hearing explosions from inside where the hostages were being kept, but their actions did not save lives. Quite the contrary, in the siege of the school, over 300 people died, nearly two-thirds of whom were children. The tragedy shook the world, and while the government was cleared of wrongdoing initially, the European Court of Human Rights later stated that Russia had used excessive force, and lacked caution, when they stormed the school.Despite anger and discontentment at the government’s handling of the tragedy, in general, it did not affect the public’s view of Putin very much at all.Quite the opposite in fact, a poll taken after the Beslan massacre stated that 83% of Russians were still happy with him.

The Beslan tragedy did lead to changes in the halls of power of the Russian government though, primarily giving more power to the Russian President. For instance, instead of electing governors in regions like North Ossetia and Chechnya, the President would have the power to appoint governors. In 2007, during his second term, Putin was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. The magazine called the final year of his second term “his most successful yet,” and the cover photo for the issue, a portrait of Putin, won the photographer the World Press Photo Award. During the shoot, the two discussed their mutual admiration for the Beatles. This connection helped Putin become more comfortable, and gave the photographer the chance to get his award-winning shot of the intimidating world leader. No matter how popular Putin was, though, the Russian people could not elect him to a third term. The Russian Constitution forbid it. However, Putin found a way around this rule just when his time in office was about to run out.