Vladimir Putin: podcast appearances and interviews

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012. He previously held the presidency from 2000 to 2008 and has also served as Prime Minister of Russia on two occasions. Born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, he worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for sixteen years, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1991 to pursue a political career. He moved to Moscow in 1996 to join President Boris Yeltsin's administration and briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service and as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in 1999. Following Yeltsin’s resignation, Putin became acting president and was elected to his first term in March 2000, subsequently reelected in 2004. Due to constitutional term limits, he served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev and returned to the presidency in 2012. His tenure has been characterized by economic growth during his initial terms, military interventions, and territorial annexations, including Crimea and parts of Ukraine. Notably, in 2021, constitutional amendments allowed him to potentially serve until 2036. In 2022, he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and annexed additional territories, leading to international sanctions. His rule has seen the transformation of Russia into an authoritarian state marked by corruption, human rights violations, suppression of opposition, and limitations on media freedom.