User:Nanobear~enwiki/Until Premiership

Early life and education

Family

Putin as a teenager

Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation) to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (1911–1998). His father born was in 1911 in St Petersburg, but during World War I, his family moved to the village to the village of Pominovo in Tver Oblast to escape the difficult situation in the city. There, he met his future wife Maria Ivanovna; the couple married when both were 17. In 1932, the Putins moved back to St Peterburg, where Maria became a factory worker, while Vladimir Spiridonovich was conscripted into the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet. The couple's first child, born soon after Vladimir Spiridovich had completed his term of service, died within few months after birth. The second succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad.

When World War II broke out, Vladimir Spiridovich was assigned to a demolitions battallion of the NKVD, which was engaged in sabotage operations behind German lines. He fought in the so-called Neva Pocket, a small area between the Neva River and Lake Ladoga that was a target of several attacks and massive bombing by the German forces, but heroically defended by Russian troops. Vladimir Spiridovich was severely wounded by a grenade but survived. After the war, he became at toolmaker at the Yevkurov Train Car Factory. The factory gave him a small room in a humble communal apartment on Baskov Lane, where Vladimir Vladimirovich lived his early childhood. The Putins have been described as a close-knit family by all biographers. His mother has been described as a spiritual, kind and hard-working person, while his father was a strict and silent man and a model communist.

Childhood

On 1 September 1960, the young Vladimir started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, just across from his house. By fifth grade he was one of a few in a class of more than 45 pupils who was not yet a member of the Pioneers, largely because of his rowdy behavior. In sixth grade he started taking sport seriously in the form of sambo and then judo.

Even before graduating from school, Putin dreamed of working in intelligence. He was strongly influenced by romantic books and spy movies such as Щит и меч ("The Sword and the Shield") and was eager to emulate the intelligence officer characters played by actors such as Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Georgiy Zhzhonov. What amazed Putin most in the stories was how one man's effort could achieve what armies could not, and how one spy could decide the fate of thousands of people.

Education

In order to find out how to get into the KGB, Putin visited the agency's office in St Petersburg. There, he was told that the KGB would only hire people with higher education or who have finished military service. When Putin asked which higher education degree would be preferred, he was told that a law degree would be most appropriate. From that moment on, Putin began to prepare himself for entrance to the law faculty of Leningrad State University. Despite fierce competition—there were 40 school graduates for each slot at the faculty—Putin managed to get accepted.

At university, Putin studied hard, avoiding any extracurricular activities, and even martial arts took a second place in his life. However, Putin continued to work out and participate in competitions. When Putin was finally contacted by the KGB and asked whether he would be willing to take up any task they would offer him, he agreed.

Putin graduated from the International Law branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University in 1975, writing his final thesis on international law. While at university he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained a member until the party was dissolved in December 1991. Also at the University he met Anatoly Sobchak who later played an important role in Putin's career. Anatoly Sobchak was at the time an Assistant Professor and lectured Putin's class on Business Law (khozyaystvennoye pravo).

KGB career

Putin in KGB uniform

Putin joined the KGB in 1975 upon graduation from university, and underwent a year's training at the 401st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad. He then went on to work briefly in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence) before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where among his duties was the monitoring of foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad, while using the cover of being a police officer with the CID.

From 1985 to 1990, the KGB stationed Putin in Dresden, East Germany. Following the collapse of the East German regime, Putin was recalled to the Soviet Union and returned to Leningrad, where in June 1991 he assumed a position with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov. In his new position, Putin maintained surveillance on the student body and kept an eye out for recruits. It was during his stint at the university that Putin grew reacquainted with Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad. Sobchak served as an assistant professor during Putin's university years and was one of Putin's lecturers. Putin resigned from the active state security services at the beginning of 1992, after the defeat of the KGB-supported abortive putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Early political career

In May 1990, Putin was appointed Mayor Sobchak's advisor on international affairs. On 28 June 1991, he was appointed head of the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments. The Committee was also used to register business ventures in Saint Petersburg. Less than one year after taking control of the committee, Putin was investigated by a commission of the city legislative council. Commission deputies Marina Salye and Yury Gladkov concluded that Putin understated prices and issued licenses permitting the export of non-ferrous metals valued at a total of $93 million in exchange for food aid from abroad that never came to the city. The commission recommended Putin be fired, but there were no immediate consequences. Putin remained head of the Committee for External Relations until 1996.

From 1994 to 1997, Putin was appointed to additional positions in the Saint Petersburg political arena. In March 1994 he became first deputy head of the administration of the city of Saint Petersburg. In 1995 (through June 1997) Putin led the Saint Petersburg branch of the pro-government Our Home Is Russia political party. During this same period from 1995 through June 1997 he was also the head of the Advisory Board of the JSC Newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti.

In 1996, Anatoly Sobchak lost the Saint Petersburg mayoral election to Vladimir Yakovlev. Putin was called to Moscow and in June 1996 assumed position of a Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department headed by Pavel Borodin. He occupied this position until March 1997. During his tenure Putin was responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized transfer of the former assets of the Soviet Union and Communist Party to the Russian Federation.

On 26 March 1997 President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy chief of Presidential Staff, which he remained until May 1998, and chief of the Main Control Directorate of the Presidential Property Management Department (until June 1998). His predecessor on this position was Alexei Kudrin and the successor was Nikolai Patrushev both future prominent politicians and Putin's associates.

On 25 May 1998, Putin was appointed First Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff for regions, replacing Viktoriya Mitina; and, on 15 July, the Head of the Commission for the preparation of agreements on the delimitation of power of regions and the federal center attached to the President, replacing Sergey Shakhray. After Putin's appointment, the commission completed no such agreements, although during Shakhray's term as the Head of the Commission there were 46 agreements signed. Later, after becoming President Putin canceled all those agreements.

On 25 July 1998 Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin head of the FSB (one of the successor agencies to the KGB), the position Putin occupied until August 1999. He became a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on 1 October 1998 and its Secretary on 29 March 1999. In April 1999, FSB Chief Vladimir Putin and Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin held a televised press conference in which they discussed a video that had aired nationwide 17 March on the state-controlled Russia TV channel which showed a naked man very similar to the Prosecutor General of Russia, Yury Skuratov, in bed with two young women. Putin claimed that expert FSB analysis proved the man on the tape to be Skuratov and that the orgy had been paid for by persons investigated for criminal offences. Skuratov had been adversarial toward President Yeltsin and had been aggressively investigating government corruption.