Who is vladimir putin

Author • Alexander Hill Professor of Military History, University of Calgary Disclosure statement Alexander Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners A woman and her child wear T-shirts with the letter Z, which has become a symbol of support for the Russian military, as they walk on the grounds of the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in August 2022. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) Western commentators have also suggested that, simmering beneath the opinion poll numbers, there is latent opposition to Putin that isn’t being expressed In this August 2021 photo, Putin attends a meeting with members of the United Russia Party with the logo of the party in the background in Moscow. (Mikhail Voskresensky/Sputnik, Kremlin/Pool Photo via AP) This alternative to Putin’s world view There’s no question the Russian population is subject to a Risking wealth, status Most of Russia’s population is, at worst, willing to quietly There are good reasons for this beyond fear. First of all, many Russian oligarchs and political leaders are closely bound to Putin through a system of patronage that is deeply entrenched. Without Putin, they are likely to lose much of their wealth and status. At the same time, some of those in the In some ways, The In this March 1993 photo, a woman in Moscow strikes a saucepan on h...

The Brussels forum, convened by four MEPs, was the first such gathering to be given official status by a European parliamentary body, as some in “This is the first time that someone is speaking about the possibility of post-Putinism. Three months ago, this wasn’t possible. EU countries thought that Putin would be president for years and years if not decades and decades … Now, the perception has changed,” said Bernard Guetta, a French MEP who was one of the forum’s organisers. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly the richest man in Russia before he was jailed for a decade in 2003, said that simply changing Putin for another person from his system would not make any difference. “This regime should be destroyed,” he said during the opening session. “There is no other road to a peaceful normal future for Russia and for Europe and the whole world.” Read more The Russian opposition has been saying this for years, and it can often sound like wishful thinking. But with the Russian army on the back foot, drone strikes and What a post-Putin Russia would look like is a matter of debate, however. Andrius Kubilius, the Lithuanian MEP and former prime minister who was the conference’s main organiser, said it was still a minority view among European politicians that real democratic change could come to Russia, but he felt it was an important argument to make for the sake of both Russia and “If big European capitals won’t believe in a possibility of a democratic Russia, which I admit is not so ...

Russia has lost 54 tanks in the course of Ukraine's current counteroffensive so far, Russian President Ukraine has spent months planning a concerted push against Russian troops, and analysts and officials are reporting Ukrainian gains to the south and east of the country in areas that Russia has claimed as annexed. Moscow has said Ukraine's counteroffensive began on June 4, but that Russia's troops had crushed the effort to push back Russian forces in contested areas. Ukraine's confirmation of the beginning of the counteroffensive came shortly after, although Kyiv has divulged few operational details. But in an unusual comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with war correspondents in Moscow on June 13, 2023. Russia has lost 54 tanks in the course of Ukraine's current counteroffensive so far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, in a rare admission of the Kremlin's military losses. GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images Some of these 54 tanks will be restored and repaired, Putin said, alleging that Ukraine had lost 160 tanks and more than 360 armored vehicles. An unnamed U.S. official told the Associated Press that the Russian leader's comments were "not accurate." In the early days of the war, Russia criminalized the spread of "fake" information about the ongoing conflict, covering any information or casualty numbers not explicitly confirmed by the Defense Ministry. In December, Since June 4, Russia has lost 114 tanks, according to statistics provid...

War is – by definition – a bloody business. Yet if you had told me an army in the 21st century could lose eight generals in combat, and perhaps as many as 15, a mere 16 months into a campaign, I would have struggled to believe you. The death of Russian Major General Sergei Goryachev – The death of Goryachev is a severe blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defence against Not only that, but in his command post, Goryachev will have been surrounded by his most important staff officers. The loss of just one of these individuals can be keenly felt at the front. The closest parallel in my own experience was the death in 1994 of the Assistant Chief of Staff in Northern Ireland, along with 24 senior police and military intelligence officers. That was a helicopter crash not enemy action, but the impact on military operations, with the loss of their collective knowledge and experience, was long-lasting and profound. In Ukraine, Russian generals have often been forced to the front through necessity. Last year we learned a combination of inferior secure communications and Ukrainian commanders recently told me how Russians are still frequently paralysed until reports are transmitted upwards and new orders issued downwards: a laborious, time-consuming process. Sometimes forces are obliged to wait until a general arrives. Furthermore, just as their soldiers are sometimes pressed forward with a gun at their back, Russian generals are compelled to the front by the spectre of the men...

Those fears became reality this week, when the Russian leader NBC News looks at How the buildup began In late 2021, military analysts helped draw the world’s attention to a concerning picture developing on Ukraine’s borders: Russia was A similar buildup, although on a smaller scale, first unnerved the world in Putin made it clear he felt the West had Ratcheting up tensions, Moscow launched Russia denied it had any plans for an invasion, even as it gathered troops and equipment in Belarus for what the countries said were pre-planned military drills. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP file It raised fears that Russia could use the pretext of the exercises to launch a direct attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, from the north. Moscow tried to signal it was pulling some troops back, but the West rejected the suggestion and said Russia was Weeks of ominous intelligence assessments culminated in President Joe Biden making it clear that the U.S. believed Putin Ukraine’s leaders sought to A pretext for a power grab? A significant spike in shelling in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists had been fighting Ukrainian forces The industrial region of Donbas, internationally recognized as Ukrainian but partly controlled by the separatists, quickly Kyiv pointed to artillery fire on a Kyiv said a kindergarten in the territory under its control in eastern Ukraine was shelled with heavy artillery weapons by Moscow-backed separatists. Aris Messinis / AFP via Getty Images...

Vladimir Putin probably never thought he'd be celebrating his 70th birthday this way. The Russian leader, who cut a ruthless path to power and changed the law so he could theoretically rule to the age of 84, is suddenly faltering. His ruinous war in Ukraine is spiralling ever further from his control, He also scrambled to The man who dreamed of restoring the Russian empire to its former glory is presiding over a nation in isolation and an economy in shambles. To add insult to injury, Russia watchers are now openly speculating about who would replace him if his position became untenable. Russian leader Vladimir Putin is facing an uphill battle to regain territory lost to Ukrainian forces. ( AP: Alexei Nikolsky) A post-Putin Russia, once an unthinkable proposition, now seems like a genuine possibility to some. "If Putin is removed from power, self-preservation on the part of Russia's oligarchs, generals, and senior functionaries will be a primary driver," "Because there is no obvious mechanism for a peaceful transition of power, there is potential for a power vacuum to develop in the event of Putin's ouster." While Putin has deliberately avoided grooming a successor in recent years, there could be several Kremlin allies waiting in the wings for their opportunity. As the Russian leader blows out the candles on his birthday cake tonight, these are the three men he should keep a watchful eye on. The confidant, Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev both hail from St...