Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, one of Russia’s most renowned money makers, checkers players, secret police agents and politicians, passed into political oblivion in the early morning of Feb. 24, 2022. A controversial figure, Putin rose from rags to riches to become Russia’s most powerful statesman until a strategic mistake led to his downfall and Russia’s disintegration.
Putin was born into a working-class family in Leningrad on Oct. 7, 1952. He studied law at Leningrad State University and became a member of the Communist Party. In 1975, he joined the KGB, the Soviet secret service, at the height of the Soviet crackdown on the dissident movement. He served in a low-level position in East Germany from 1985-1990, where he witnessed the collapse of communism, an event that appeared to have traumatized him.
After several undistinguished jobs in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Putin was appointed head of the KGB’s successor, the FSB, in 1998. One year later, he was appointed prime minister and, a few months thereafter, acting president. In 2000, he was elected president, a position that he occupied, except for a brief hiatus, until his political demise in 2022.
Putin is celebrated by many Russians for having destroyed Russia’s nascent democratic institutions, muzzled the press and cowed civil society. Although he claimed to be acting in accordance with the will of the people, critics suggested that he had built an authoritarian regime. Some went so far as to accuse him of totalitarianism and fascism. Others suggested he constructed a personality cult that emphasized his hyper-masculine qualities and identified him as the embodiment of Russia and its revival. Putin dismissed the criticism, claiming that the Russian people wanted a strong and vigorous leader who would make their country great again.
Putin staffed most positions within the political elite with members of the security services and armed forces. Assassinations of the regime’s political opponents allegedly became routine, as did arrests and expulsions of dissidents. According to his critics, Putin and his cronies constructed a kleptocracy that enabled them to enrich themselves and their families. Putin himself was suspected of having purloined some $75 billion. He vigorously denied all such allegations of rampant corruption as baseless instances of rabid Russophobia.
Foreign observers, along with many Russians, believed Putin was a grandmaster at chess, but his critics disagreed, insisting that he was at best a good checkers player who knew how to bluff and intimidate his opponents. Supporters of Putin pointed to his economic achievements and military reforms. They also claimed that he had made Russians proud to be Russians by making Russia feared by much of the world.
Critics countered by saying that Putin had the good fortune to have assumed high office at just the moment that energy prices went through the roof, that his foreign policy had managed to make Russia a rogue state with no friends or allies, and that his highly touted military reform was a Potemkin village.
Both supporters and critics of Putin agreed that he had changed Russia fundamentally. Both supporters and critics also agreed that his legacy would have been substantial had he not embarked on a disastrous foreign-policy adventure that destroyed him and Russia.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Mr. Putin decided to launch an all-out war against Ukraine, a country he had repeatedly claimed did not exist. He expected the capital city Kyiv to be captured within a few days and the country to surrender soon thereafter. Instead, the Ukrainians fought back fiercely and turned what was supposed to be a blitzkrieg into a quagmire. A large number of countries then imposed ruinous sanctions on Russia and backed Ukraine financially and militarily. Russia’s expected victory soon became an ignominious defeat, strengthening NATO, pushing Ukraine into the West’s embrace, transforming Russia into what critics called a tinpot banana dictatorship, and provoking a string of declarations of independence by the Russian Federation’s disgruntled non-Russian republics.
Putin’s political funeral was attended by many dignitaries, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, American actor Steven Seagal and Russian diva Anna Netrebko, who sang an operatic version of Putin’s favorite song, “I Want a Man Just like Putin.” Russian conductor Valery Gergiev joined Netrebko in the refrain. Schröder called upon the international community to celebrate Putin’s contributions to world peace by giving generously to the Putin Peace Fund. Putin is survived by his ex-wife, Ludmilla, a host of girlfriends, and an unknown number of children, all reputedly living in Europe.
Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark.
