Putin completes quarter century, polls show he's still popular in Kremlin's hot seat

Moscow: Exactly 25 years ago on May 7, an obscure ex-KGB colonel Vladimir Putin - with little public exposure as deputy mayor of St Petersburg - took the oath of the highest office in the post-Communist Russia.

A quarter century later, Putin, 72, still remains the most popular politician in Russia, as was evident by last year’s election, which Putin won with 88.48 per cent of votes polled.

In a TV documentary shown on Sunday, he, however, said that he was looking for a successor, but it was not in his power as the successor would have to seek a popular vote in the elections with strong rivals.

For Putin, it has been a 25-year journey that has come to coincide with Russia's journey in the 21st century.

His predecessor Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first directly elected president, had resigned due to failing health on the backdrop of political instability, financial and economic, militancy in the Northern Caucasus and a spate of terrorist attacks. He handed Putin, the incumbent prime minister of the country, the hot Kremlin seat on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1999.

Putin was elected on March 26, 2000, bagging 53 per cent votes by beating Communist rival Gennady Zyuganov and liberal Yabloko block leader Grigory Yavlinsky in “reasonably free and fair” polls, according to a declassified US Embassy cable from Moscow in 2024.

The way Putin resolutely fought Chechen militancy, assured timely pensions to the most vulnerable section of society, revived manufacturing in the country, generating employment, ensured a second term with almost 72 per cent votes.

Due to constitutional restraint of two four-year consecutive terms, he stepped aside and took over the job of prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev for four years.

Later, due to Medvedev’s constitutional amendments, the presidential term was extended to six years and in 2012 and 2018, Putin was elected with 64.95 and 77.53 per cent votes, respectively.

However, when the constitution was amended by nationwide vote in July 2020, he was given the right to contest for two more six-year terms till 2036.

In between, Russia had taken over Crimea in a peaceful operation on the backdrop of chaos in Ukraine, which Moscow claims was due to a US-doctored coup against the legitimate President Viktor Yanukovich in March 2014.

Many years later, after US-led NATO refused Putin's demand not to further expand and give Russia ‘equitable’ security guarantees, Moscow began a 'Special Military Operation' in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The latest opinion poll showed that Putin's popularity rating stood at 80 per cent even as the country is fighting a war in Ukraine with the collective West amid crippling sanctions.

Putin won last year's election with 88.48 per cent, when the highest ever post-Soviet turnout of 77.49 per cent was recorded.

“We are facing a war with NATO, just like under Tsar Alexander I with Napoleon, or under Stalin with Nazi Germany. We forget our differences and solidly stand for our motherland, whoever is the leader,” said 72-year-old pensioner Tatiana P.

Putin's India connect Retired Intelligence officer Putin was working at the St Petersburg State University when local Mayor Anatoly Sobchak invited him to become deputy mayor in charge of foreign trade relations.

As locals recall, Putin, a fluent German speaker, used to go to receptions hosted only by consulates of Germany and India, because he was to encourage investments from Germans and wisely utilise the Rupee debt repayment mechanism.

He had developed very friendly relations with the then Indian Consul Dr Rameshchandra, and developed a taste for Indian cuisine. In a public event in 1996, he clearly declared: “Those sitting in the Kremlin do not realise India’s importance, we should invest rupee debt repayment funds for joint hi-tech projects.” Shortly after this speech in the course of fresh elections, his patron Anatoly Sobchak lost his job and Putin was invited to a job in the Kremlin office.

It was a period of political and economic turmoil in the Russian capital.

Incumbent Boris Yeltsin was getting weaker and rival oligarchs were indulging in infighting and getting richer by plundering the riches of the defunct Soviet empire. President Yeltsin appointed Putin as the director of the Federal Security Service - FSB - equivalent to the US FBI.

On the backdrop of growing Chechen militancy and financial default of 1998, Yeltsin appointed several prime ministers and finally in September 1999, Putin was appointed head of the cabinet before his appointment as the caretaker president on New Year's Eve in 1999.

After his election, Putin visited India at the invitation of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the two leaders signed a strategic partnership treaty, which will also mark a quarter century this October.

Sharing his memories of Putin’s first official visit to India, former Chief of the International Department of the Russian Defence Ministry, Lt Gen (rtd) Leonid Ivashov told PTI, “On the way to Delhi, I told President Putin that he can develop relations with different countries but India is a special case and should always be on Russia’s radar.” Gen Ivashov recalls that many years later after his retirement, he was at a conference attended by Putin: “The President walked up to me and said, 'I have not forgotten your advice about India'.”