Thread by @DeMelaatse

Who the hell is #VladimirPutin?

A Thread
#RussiaUkraineWar

Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (née Shelomova; 1911–1998). His grandfather, Spiridon Putin (1879–1965),

was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and 👉Joseph Stalin.👈 Putin's birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers: Albert, born in the 1930s, died in infancy, and Viktor, born in 1940, died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi

Germany's forces in World War II. Putin's mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. During the Early stage of Nazi German invasion of Soviet Union, his father served in the 👉destruction

battalion👈 of the NKVD (destruction battalions, colloquially истребители, or "destroyers," and "exterminators," were paramilitary units under the control of NKVD in the western Soviet Union, which performed tasks of internal security on the Eastern Front. After the Fall of the

Soviet Union 👉the battalions were deemed by the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) to be a criminal organization)👈. Later, Vladimir Spiridonovich was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942. Putin's maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers

of Tver region in 1941 on the Eastern Front during World War II. On 1 September 1960, Putin started at School No. 193 at Baskov Lane, near his home. He was one of a few in his class of about 45 pupils who were not yet members of the Young Pioneer organization.

At age 12, he began to practise sambo and judo. In his free time, he enjoyed reading the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Lenin. Putin studied German at Saint Petersburg High School 281 and speaks German as a second language.Putin studied law at the Leningrad State

University named after Andrei Zhdanov (now Saint Petersburg State University) in 1970 and graduated in 1975. His thesis was on "The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law.” While there, he was required to join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU);

he would remain a member until it ceased to exist in 1991. Putin met Anatoly Sobchak, an assistant professor who taught business law, and who later became the co-author of the Russian constitution and of corruption schemes in France. Putin would be influential in Sobchak's career

in Saint Petersburg, and Sobchak would be influential in Putin's career in Moscow. In 1997, he received his Ph.D. in economics (Candidate of Economic Sciences) at the Saint Petersburg Mining University for a thesis on the strategic planning of the mineral economy.

In 1975, Putin joined the KGB and trained at the 401st KGB School in Okhta, Leningrad. After training, he worked in the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence), before he was transferred to the First Chief Directorate, where he monitored foreigners and consular officials

in Leningrad. In September 1984, Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute, now the Academy of Foreign Intelligence. Multiple reports suggest Putin was sent by the KGB to New Zealand, corroborated through New Zealand eyewitness

accounts and government records. This has not been confirmed by Russian security services. Former Waitākere City mayor Bob Harvey and former Prime Minister David Lange alleged Putin served in Wellington and Auckland. Putin allegedly worked for some time undercover as

a Bata shoe salesman in central Wellington. From 1985 to 1990, he served in Dresden, East Germany, using a cover identity as a translator. Russian-American Masha Gessen wrote in a 2012 biography, "Putin and his colleagues were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus

contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB.” His work was also downplayed by former Stasi spy chief Markus Wolf and Putin's former KGB colleague Vladimir Usoltsev. Journalist Catherine Belton wrote in 2020 this downplaying was cover for Putin's

involvement in KGB coordination and support for the terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF), whose members frequently hid in East Germany with the support of the Stasi. Dresden was preferred as a "marginal" town with only a small presence of Western intelligence services.

According to an anonymous source, a former RAF member, at meeting in Dresden, the militants presented Putin with a list of weapons later delivered to the RAF in West Germany. Klaus Zuchold, who claimed to be recruited by Putin, said Putin handled a neo-Nazi, Rainer Sonntag,

and attempted to recruit an author of a study on poisons. Putin reportedly met Germans to be recruited for wireless communications affairs together with an interpreter. He was involved in wireless communications technologies in the West and South-East Asia due to trips of German

engineers Putin recruited. According to Putin's official biography, during the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, Putin saved the files of the Soviet Cultural Center (House of Friendship) and of the KGB villa in Dresden for the official authorities of the would-be united

Germany to prevent demonstrators, including KGB and Stasi agents, from obtaining and destroying records. Putin supposedly burnt only KGB files, in a few hours, but saved the archives of the Soviet Cultural Center for the German authorities. Nothing is told about the selection

criteria during this burning; for example, concerning Stasi files or about files of other agencies of the German Democratic Republic or of the USSR. Putin explained many documents were left to Germany only because the furnace burst but many documents of the KGB villa were

sent to Moscow. After the collapse of Communist East Germany, Putin resigned from active KGB service because of suspicions aroused regarding his loyalty during demonstrations in Dresden and earlier, though the KGB and the Soviet Army still operated in eastern Germany.

He returned to Leningrad in early 1990 as a member of the "active reserves,” where Putin worked for about three months with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov, while working on his doctoral dissertation.

Putin looked for new KGB recruits, watched the student body, and renewed his friendship with his former professor, Anatoly Sobchak, soon to be the Mayor of Leningrad. Putin claims he resigned with the rank of lieutenant colonel on 20 August 1991, the second day of the 1991 Soviet

Soviet coup d'état attempt against the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Putin said: "As soon as the coup began, I immediately decided which side I was on,” although he noted the choice was difficult because he had spent the best part of his life with "the organs [Soviets]."

In May 1990, Putin was appointed an advisor on international affairs to the mayor of Leningrad Anatoly Sobchak. In a 2017 interview with Oliver Stone, Putin said he resigned from the KGB in 1991, following the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, as Putin did not agree with what had

happened and did not want to be part of Intelligence in the new administration. According to Putin's statements in 2018 and 2021, he may have worked as a private taxi driver to earn extra money, or considered such a job.

On 28 June 1991, Putin became head of the Committee for External Relations of the Mayor's Office, with responsibility for promoting international relations and foreign investments and registering business ventures. Within a year, Putin was investigated by the city legislative

council led by Marina Salye. It was concluded 👉Putin had understated prices and permitted the export of metals valued at $93 million in exchange for foreign food aid which never arrived.👈 Despite the investigators' recommendation Putin be fired, Putin remained head of the

Committee for External Relations until 1996. From 1994 to 1996, he held several other political and governmental positions in Saint Petersburg. In March 1994, Putin was appointed as first deputy chairman of the Government of Saint Petersburg. In May 1995, he organized the

Saint Petersburg branch of the pro-government Our Home–Russia political party, the liberal party of power founded by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. In 1995, Putin managed the legislative election campaign for the party, and from 1995 through June 1997, he was leader of the

Saint Petersburg branch. In June 1996, Sobchak lost his bid for reelection in Saint Petersburg, and Putin, who had led his election campaign, resigned from his positions in the city administration. He moved to Moscow and was appointed as deputy chief of the Presidential Property

Management Department headed by Pavel Borodin. He occupied this position until March 1997. He was responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized the transfer of the former assets of the Soviet Union and the CPSU to the Russian Federation.

On 26 March 1997, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin deputy chief of the Presidential Staff, a post which he retained until May 1998, and chief of the Main Control Directorate of the Presidential Property Management Department (until June 1998). His predecessor was

Alexei Kudrin and his successor was Nikolai Patrushev, both future prominent politicians and Putin's associates.On 3 April 1997, Putin was promoted to 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation — the highest federal state civilian service rank.

On 27 June 1997, under Saint Petersburg Mining Institute Vladimir Litvinenko, Putin defended his Candidate of Science dissertation in economics,“Strategic Planning of the Reproduction of the Mineral Resource Base of a Region under Conditions of the Formation of Market Relations.”

This exemplified the custom in Russia whereby a young rising official would write a scholarly work in mid-career. 👉Putin's thesis was plagiarized.👈 Fellows at the Brookings Institution found 15 pages were copied from an American textbook. On 25 May 1998, Putin was appointed

First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Staff for the regions, in succession to Viktoriya Mitina. Putin was appointed head of the commission for the preparation of agreements on the delimitation of the power of the regions and head of the federal center replacing Sergey Shakhray.

👉After Putin's 15 July 1998 appointment, the commission completed no such agreements, although during Shakhray's term as the head of the Commission 46 such agreements had been signed. Later, after becoming president, Putin cancelled all 46 agreements.👈

On 25 July 1998, Yeltsin appointed Putin Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the primary intelligence & security organization of the Russian Federation and the successor to the KGB. Putin said communism as "a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization.”

On 9 August 1999, Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime ministers, and later that day, appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Yeltsin. Yeltsin also announced he wanted to see Putin as his successor.

Again the same day, Putin agreed to run for the presidency. On 16 August, the State Duma approved his appointment as Prime Minister with 233 votes in favor (vs. 84 against, 17 abstained), while a simple majority of 226 was required, making him Russia's fifth Prime Minister in

fewer than eighteen months. On his appointment few expected Putin, who was unknown to the general public, to last longer than his predecessors. He was initially regarded as a Yeltsin loyalist; like other prime ministers of Boris Yeltsin, Putin did not choose ministers himself,

his cabinet was determined by the presidential administration. Yeltsin's main opponents and would-be successors were already campaigning to replace the ailing president, and they fought hard to prevent Putin's emergence as a potential successor. Following the Russian apartment

bombings and invasion of Dagestan by mujahideen, including former KGB agents, based in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Putin's law-and-order image and unrelenting approach to the Second Chechen War soon combined to raise his popularity and allowed him to overtake his rivals.

While not formally associated with any party, Putin pledged his support to the newly formed Unity Party, which won the second largest percentage of the popular vote (23.3%) in the December 1999 Duma elections, and in turn supported Putin. On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin

unexpectedly resigned and, according to the Constitution of Russia, Putin became Acting President of the Russian Federation. On assuming this role, Putin went on a previously scheduled visit to Russian troops in Chechnya.

The first presidential decree Putin signed on 31 December 1999 was titled "On guarantees for the Former President of the Russian Federation and the Members of his Family.” 👉This ensured "corruption charges against the outgoing President and his relatives" would not be pursued.👈

This was most notably targeted at the Mabetex bribery case in which Yeltsin's family members were involved. 👉On 30 August 2000, a criminal investigation in which Putin himself, as a member of the Saint Petersburg city government, was one of the suspects, was dropped.👈

👉On 30 December 2000, yet another case against the prosecutor general was dropped "for lack of evidence", despite thousands of documents having been forwarded by Swiss prosecutors. On 12 February 2001, Putin signed a similar federal law which replaced the decree of 1999.👈

A case regarding Putin's alleged corruption in metal exports from 1992 was brought back by Marina Salye, but she was silenced and forced to leave Saint Petersburg. While his opponents had been preparing for an election in June 2000, Yeltsin's resignation resulted in the

presidential elections being held on 26 March 2000; Putin won in the first round with 53% of the vote. The inauguration of President Putin occurred on 7 May 2000. He appointed the minister of finance, Mikhail Kasyanov, as prime minister. The first major challenge to Putin's

popularity came in August 2000, when he was criticized for the alleged mishandling of the Kursk submarine disaster. The criticism was largely because it took several days for Putin to return from vacation, and several more before he visited the scene.

Between 2000 and 2004, Putin set about the reconstruction of the impoverished condition of the country, winning a power-struggle with the Russian oligarchs and reaching a “grand bargain.” 👉The Grand Bargain allowed oligarchs to maintain most of their powers, in exchange for

their explicit support for—and alignment with—Putin's government.👈 The Moscow theater hostage crisis occurred in October 2002. Many in the Russian press and in the international media warned the deaths of 130 hostages in the Special Forces' rescue operation during the crisis

would severely damage President Putin's popularity. However, shortly after the siege ended, the Russian president enjoyed record public approval ratings—83% of Russians declared themselves satisfied with Putin and his handling of the siege.

In 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya, adopting a new constitution which declared the Republic of Chechnya is a part of Russia; on the other hand, the region did acquire autonomy. Chechnya has been gradually stabilized with the establishment of the Parliamentary elections

and a Regional Government. Throughout the Second Chechen War, Russia severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement; however, sporadic attacks by rebels continued to occur throughout the northern Caucasus.

On 14 March 2004, Putin was elected to the presidency for a second term, receiving 71% of the vote. The Beslan School Hostage Crisis took place on 1–3 September 2004; more than 330 people died, including 186 children. The near 10-year period prior to the rise of Putin after

the dissolution of Soviet rule was a time of upheaval in Russia. In a 2005 Kremlin speech, Putin characterized the collapse of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the Twentieth Century." Putin elaborated, "Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration

“infected Russia itself." The country's cradle-to-grave social safety net was gone and life expectancy declined in the period preceding Putin's rule. In 2005, the National Priority Projects were launched to improve Russia's health care, education, housing, and agriculture.

The criminal prosecution of the wealthiest man in Russia at the time, President of Yukos Oil and Gas Company Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for fraud and tax evasion was seen by the international press as a 👉retaliation for Khodorkovsky's donations to both liberal and communist opponents

of the Kremlin. Khodorkovsky was arrested, Yukos was bankrupted, and the company's assets were auctioned at below-market value, with the largest share acquired by the state company Rosneft.👈 The fate of Yukos was seen as a sign of a broader shift of Russia towards a system of

state capitalism. This was underscored in July 2014, when shareholders of Yukos were awarded $50 billion in compensation by the Permanent Arbitration Court in The Hague. On 7 October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who exposed corruption in the Russian army and its conduct

in Chechnya, was shot in her apartment building, on Putin's birthday. The Politkovskaya’s death triggered accusations Putin had failed to protect the country's new independent media. Putin said her death caused the government more problems than her writings.

👉In February 2007, at the Munich Security Conference, Putin complained about being engendered by the dominant position in geopolitics of the United States, and observed a former NATO official had made rhetorical promises not to expand into new countries in Eastern Europe.👈

On 14 July 2007, Putin announced Russia would suspend implementation of its Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe obligations, effective after 150 days, and suspend its ratification of the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty which treaty was shunned by NATO

members abeyant Russian withdrawal from Transnistria and the Republic of Georgia. Moscow continued to participate in the joint consultative group, because it hoped dialogue could lead to the creation of an effective, new conventional arms control regime in Europe.

👉Russia did specify steps NATO could take to end the suspension. These include [NATO] members cutting their arms allotments and further restricting temporary weapons deployments on each NATO member’s territory. Russia also want[ed] constraints eliminated on how many forces it

can deploy in its southern and northern flanks.👈 Russia is pressing NATO members to ratify a 1999 updated version of the accord, known as the Adapted CFE Treaty, and demanding the four alliance members outside the original treaty, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, & Slovenia, join it.

On 12 September 2007, Putin dissolved the government upon the request of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. Fradkov commented it was to give the President a "free hand" in the run-up to the parliamentary election. Viktor Zubkov was appointed the new prime minister.

In December 2007, United Russia, the party supporting Putin’s policies, won 64.24% of the popular vote in their run for State Duma according to election preliminary results. United Russia's victory in the December 2007 elections was seen by many as an indication of strong popular

support of the then Russian leadership and its policies. Putin was barred from a third consecutive term by the Constitution. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected his successor. In a power-switching operation on 8 May 2008, only a day after handing the

presidency to Medvedev, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia, maintaining his political dominance. Putin has said overcoming the consequences of the world economic crisis was one of the two main achievements of his second premiership. The other was stabilizing the

size of Russia's population between 2008 and 2011 following a long period of demographic collapse beginning in the 1990s. At the United Russia Congress in Moscow on 24 September 2011, Medvedev officially proposed Putin stand for the presidency in 2012, an offer Putin accepted.

Given United Russia's near-total dominance of Russian politics, many observers believed Putin was assured of a third term. The move was expected to see Medvedev stand on the United Russia ticket in the parliamentary elections in December, with a goal of becoming prime minister at

the end of his presidential term. After the parliamentary elections on 4 December 2011, tens of thousands of Russians engaged in protests against alleged electoral fraud, the largest protests in Putin's time. Protesters criticized Putin and United Russia and demanded annulment of

the election results. Those protests sparked the fear of a colour revolution in society. Putin allegedly organized a number of paramilitary groups loyal to himself and to the United Russia party in the period between 2005 and 2012. the election results.

On 24 September 2011, while speaking at the United Russia party Congress, Medvedev announced he would recommend the party nominate Putin as its presidential candidate. He also revealed the two men had long ago cut a deal to allow Putin to run for president in 2012.

This switch was termed by many in the media as "Rokirovka,” the Russian term for the chess move "castling.” On 4 March 2012, Putin won the 2012 Russian presidential election in the first round, with 63.6% of the vote, despite opposition groups accusing United Russia of fraud.

Anti-Putin protests took place during and directly after the presidential campaign. The most notorious protest was the Pussy Riot performance on 21 February, and subsequent trial. An estimated 8,000–20,000 protesters gathered in Moscow on 6 May.

A counterprotest of Putin supporters occurred which culminated in a gathering of an estimated 130,000 supporters at the Luzhniki Stadium, Russia's largest stadium.Some of the attendees stated they were misled, paid, or forced to come. The rally is the largest in support of Putin.

Putin's presidency was inaugurated in the Kremlin on 7 May 2012. On his first day, Putin issued the "May Decrees" on wide-ranging goals for the Russian economy, education, housing, skilled labor training, relations with the EU, the defense industry, and inter-ethnic relations.

In 2012 and 2013, Putin and United Russia backed stricter laws against the LGBT community, in Saint Petersburg, Archangelsk, and Novosibirsk; a law prohibits "homosexual propaganda" (which prohibits such symbols as the rainbow flag) was adopted by the State Duma in June 2013.

Responding to international concerns about Russia's legislation, Putin asked critics to note the law was a "ban on the propaganda of pedophilia and homosexuality" and he stated homosexual visitors to the 2014 Winter Olympics should "leave the children in peace" but denied

there was any "professional, career or social discrimination" against homosexuals in Russia. Putin attended a bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama during the G8 summit in Ireland on 17 June 2013.

In February 2014, Russia made several military incursions into Ukraine violating the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances of 5 December 1994, guaranteeing Ukraine territory in exchange for Ukraine giving its nuclear weapons to Russia; the US, UK, and Russia agreed to

assure Ukraine sovereignty. After the Euromaidan protests and the fall of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Russian soldiers without insignias took control of strategic positions and infrastructure within the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Russia then annexed Crimea and

Sevastopol after a referendum in which, according to official results, Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation. Subsequently, demonstrations against Ukrainian Rada legislative actions by pro-Russian groups in the Donbas area of Ukraine escalated into the Russo-Ukrainian War

between the Ukrainian government and the Russia-backed separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. In August 2014, Russian military vehicles crossed the border in several locations of Donetsk Oblast. The incursion by the Russian military was

seen by Ukrainian authorities as responsible for the defeat of Ukrainian forces in early September.
channel4.com/news/tensions-…

On 30 September 2015, President Putin authorized Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, following a formal request by the Syrian government for military help against rebel and jihadist groups.

The Russian military activities consisted of air strikes, cruise missile strikes and the use of front line advisors and Russian special forces against militant groups opposed to the Syrian government, including the Syrian opposition, as well as Islamic State of Iraq and

the Levant (ISIL), al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda in the Levant), Tahrir al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Army of Conquest. After Putin's announcement on 14 March 2016 the mission he had set for the Russian military in Syria had been "largely accomplished" and ordered the withdrawal

of the "main part" of the Russian forces from Syria, Russian forces deployed in Syria continued to actively operate in support of the Syrian government.

Putin won the 2018 Russian presidential election with more than 76% of the vote. His fourth term began on 7 May 2018, and will last until 2024. On the same day, Putin invited Dmitry Medvedev to form a new government. On 15 May 2018, Putin took part in the opening

of the movement along the highway section of the Crimean bridge. On 25 May 2018, Putin announced that he would not run for president in 2024, justifying this in compliance with the Russian Constitution. On 18 October 2018, Putin said Russians will 'go to Heaven as martyrs' in the

event of a nuclear war as he would only use nuclear weapons in retaliation. See:

https://twitter.com/demelaatse/status/1504197750027481088

In September 2019, Putin's administration interfered with results of Russia's nationwide regional elections and eliminated all candidates in the opposition. The event was aimed at contributing to United Russia's victory, inciting mass protests for democracy.

On 15 January 2020, Medvedev and his entire government resigned after Putin's 2020 Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly. Putin suggested major constitutional amendments extending his political power after presidency. At the same time, on behalf of Putin, Medvedev

continued to exercise his powers until the formation of a new government. Putin suggested Medvedev take the newly created post of deputy chairman of the Security Council. On the same day, Putin nominated Mikhail Mishustin, head of the country's Federal Tax Service for the post

of prime minister. The next day, he was confirmed by the State Duma to the post, and appointed prime minister by Putin's decree. This was the first time ever a prime minister was confirmed without any votes against.

👉Putin signed an executive order on 3 July 2020 to officially insert amendments into the Constitution allowing him to two additional six-year terms taking effect on 4 July 2020. On 22 December 2020, Putin signed a bill giving lifetime legal immunity to Russian ex-presidents.👈

In July 2021, Putin published an essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” in which he states Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians are one All-Russian nation and are "one people" whom "forces that have always sought to undermine our unity.”

👉The essay denies the existence of Ukraine as an independent nation. He also discusses the Russo-Ukrainian War, maintaining "Kiev simply does not need Donbas". Putin ends the lengthy essay by asserting Russia's role in modern Ukrainian affairs.👈

In a speech on 21 February 2022, following the escalation in the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, Putin said "modern Ukraine was wholly and fully created by Bolshevik, communist Russia.”
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Обра…

On 24 February, Putin in a televised address announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine, launching a full-scale invasion of the country with a stated purpose of “denazification of the predominantly Russian-speaking region of Donbas.”

Putin’s real goal is estimated as:

https://twitter.com/demelaatse/status/1577023835450195970

Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva on 28 July 1983 and they lived together in East Germany from 1985 to 1990. They have two daughters, Mariya Putina, born on 28 April 1985 in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), and Yekaterina Putina, born on 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany.

An investigation by Proekt published in November 2020 alleged Putin has another daughter, Elizaveta, also known as Luiza Rozova, born in March 2003), with Svetlana Krivonogikh. In April 2008, the Moskovsky Korrespondent reported Putin had divorced Lyudmila and was engaged

to marry Olympic gold medalist Alina Kabaeva, a former rhythmic gymnast & Russian politician. The story was denied and the newspaper was shut down shortly thereafter. Putin and Lyudmila continued to make public appearances together as spouses, while the status of his relationship

On 6 June 2013, Putin and Lyudmila announced their marriage was over; on 1 April 2014, the Kremlin confirmed the divorce had been finalised. Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to a daughter by Putin in 2015; this report was again denied. Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to twin sons by

Putin in 2019. However, in 2022, Swiss media, citing the couple's Swiss gynecologist, wrote that on both occasions Kabaeva gave birth to a boy.
derbund.ch/putins-sohn-wu…

Putin has two grandsons, born in 2012 and 2017, through Maria. He reportedly also has a granddaughter, born in 2017, through Katerina. His cousin, Igor Putin, was a director at Moscow-based Master Bank and was accused in a number of money-laundering scandals.

Official figures released during the legislative election of 2007 put Putin's wealth at approximately 3.7 million rubles ($280,000) in bank accounts, a private 77.4-square-meter (833 sq ft) apartment in Saint Petersburg, and miscellaneous other assets.

Putin's reported 2006 income totaled 2 million rubles (approximately $152,000). In 2012, Putin reported an income of 3.6 million rubles ($270,000). Putin has been photographed wearing a number of expensive wristwatches, collectively valued at $700,000, nearly six times his

annual salary. Putin has been known on occasion to give watches valued at thousands of dollars as gifts, for example a watch identified as a Blancpain to a Siberian boy he met while on vacation in 2009, and another similar watch to a factory worker the same year.

According to Russian opposition politicians and journalists, Putin secretly possesses a multi-billion-dollar fortune via successive ownership of stakes in a number of Russian companies. Recall Russian oligarchs are pledged to Putin and his political party.

“There is uncertainty on the precise sum of Putin's wealth, and the assessment by the Director of U.S. National Intelligence apparently is not yet complete. However, with the pile of evidence and documents in the Panama Papers and in the hands of independent investigators such as

“those cited by Dawisha, Polygraph.info finds that Danilov's claim that Western intelligence agencies have not been able to find evidence of Putin's wealth to be misleading”
— Polygraph.info

The West’s energy policies netted Russia ≈$321B in 2022. It is estimated due to Putin’s closes ties to Russian Oligarchs, a significant portion will go into Putin’s net worth.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

As president and prime minister, Putin has lived in numerous official residences throughout the country. These residences include: the Moscow Kremlin, Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Oblast where Putin hosted Obama in 2009, Gorki-9 near Moscow,

Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, Dolgiye Borody (residence) in Novgorod Oblast, and Riviera in Sochi.

Soon after Putin returned from his KGB service in Dresden, East Germany, he built a dacha in Solovyovka on the eastern shore of Lake Komsomolskoye on the Karelian Isthmus in Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast, near St. Petersburg.

After the dacha burned down in 1996, Putin built a new one identical to the original and was joined by a group of seven friends who built dachas nearby. In 1996, the group formally registered their fraternity as a co-operative society, calling it Озеро, "Lake.”

Putin has received five dogs from various nation leaders: Konni, Buffy, Yume, Verni and Pasha. Konni died in 2014. When Putin first became president, the family had two poodles, Tosya and Rodeo. They reportedly stayed with his ex-wife Lyudmila after their divorce.

Putin is Russian Orthodox. His mother was a devoted Christian believer who attended the Russian Orthodox Church, while his father was an atheist. Though his mother kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly, despite government persecution of her religion at that time.

Putin’s mother secretly baptized him as a baby, and she regularly took him to services. According to Putin, his religious awakening began after a serious car crash involving his wife in 1993, and a life-threatening fire burning down their dacha in August 1996. Shortly before an

official visit to Israel, Putin's mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed. Putin states, "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since." When asked in 2007 whether he believes in God,

he responded: "There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody's consumption because that would look like self-advertising or a political striptease."

Putin's rumoured confessor is Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov. The sincerity of his Christianity has been rejected by his former advisor Sergei Pugachev. Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill of Moscow is a know close ally.

Putin watches football and supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. He also displays an interest in ice hockey and bandy, and played in a star-studded hockey game on his 63rd birthday. Putin has been practicing judo since he was 11 years old, before switching to sambo at the age of

fourteen. He was awarded eighth dan of the black belt in 2012, becoming the first Russian to achieve the status. In July 2022, DCI William Burns stated there is no evidence to suggest Putin was unstable or in bad health.

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