Putin

Putin-The Man

Our world is at war and the man waging it is Vladimir Putin. He is the president of Russia. For a long time Putin kept the world guessing about the war. Then one morning he decided to shock the world, he invaded Ukraine and dared the world to stop him. “If you interfere from outside you will face consequences”, he said, consequences greater than any faced in years.

In 2008 he sent troops to Georgia, in 2014 he annexed Crimea. In 2022 Vladimir Putin single-handedly put Europe in a spot. He launched a multi-frontal attack on Ukraine.

Where does Putin get this nerve from.

Putin's grandfather worked as a cook for Joseph Stalin. But that's actually irrelevant here. Experts believe Putin picked his dictatorial traits from a former boss. Putin was once the Deputy Mayor of Saint Petersburg and his boss was the city's Mayor. His name was Anatoly Sabchuk. Putin admired him and is said to have subconsciously picked his traits.

Today Putin's authoritarianism is out in the open. Ukraine says parallels between Putin and Hitler are not a meme anymore. They are Ukraine's reality.

You see, if we have to understand the war in Ukraine, we must first understand Vladimir Putin, the man who is pulling the strings of this war.

What's in his mind ?

What has shaped his life ?

So, where do we start ?

You would know that Vladimir Putin was once a KGB agent. KGB was the Soviet spy agency. When Putin was training for it in 1975, his trainers found out a flaw in the young man. They said, Putin had a diminished sense of danger. In other words, what may seem dangerous to you and me, may not seem dangerous to Vladimir Putin. He acknowledges this in his biography, he says that back in his KGB days, a negative trait often ascribed to him was his lowered sense of danger.

Well, it seems they were not wrong.

Which leader today would dare to send tanks into another country ?

Which leader would be unafraid of repercussions ?

Putin has been exhibiting this diminished sense of danger since his childhood. He was born in October 1952 in the Soviet city of Leningrad. His parents belonged to the working class. They lived in a Soviet-style apartment and sharedthe space with two other families.While most children picked up humble sports, Putin decided to pursue martial arts. While most school boys dreamt of becoming a doctor or a fighter pilot or something glamorous, Putin dreamt of becoming a spy.

He first set foot into the KGB headquarters when he was still in his teens. He graduated from the Leningrad State University in 1975 and went straight to join the KGB. He was posted in east Germany where he mastered smokes and mirrors. He went on to be fulfil his childhood dream of being a spy.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, things started changing rapidly for him. Putin became the Deputy Mayor of Saint Petersburg in 1997. The Deputy Chief of the Presidential Staff a year later. He was also heading the FSB, the new spy agency during that period.

In 1999, he became one of Russia’s first deputy Prime Ministers and later the Prime Minister. His career soared as Russia's reputation tanked.

Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first President was corrupt, drunk and a laughing stock. Plus, Yeltsin was too close to the west for Putin's taste. While the cold war was over, its legacy remained and Putin, a former Soviet spy could never really get himself to trust the west. He could not ignore the fact that the NATO. Putin feared that NATO would expand and go on to include ex-soviet republics and ultimately surround Russia. He was frustrated that Yeltsin did not do enough to contain the NATO. Putin dreamt of a Russian state that would be independent, influential and feared. Chechnya gave him the opportunity tobuild that dream state. The region had broken away from Russia and Chechen rebels had become a nuisance. In 1999, aseries of blasts rocked Russia. More than 300 people were killed across several Russian cities. Putin was the Prime Minister. He began naming, shaming and blaming Chechens on live television.

He would whip up nationalistic emotions,call chechens mad dogs. Putin vowed to avenge the blasts. Soon his approval rating soared from 2 before the bombings to 45 after them. Reports then emerged that Putin may have faked these bombings that former KGB agents could have planted the bombs.

Russia, of course squashed this theory and went to war with Chechnya. At least, 80 000 people were killed and Chechnya was brought back to Russia. Instead of gloating, Yeltsin suddenly resigned. He named Vladimir Putin, the country's acting president. It was the New Year’s Eve, 31st of december 1999. Putin was married to a former flight attendant. But, she had no idea of her husband becoming the President of Russia. Putin had known about this for days but he never told his wife.

He did not tell her that he would be the next president. That's how secretive Vladimir Putin can be.

Reports say the Russian parliament had no clue about his plans of invading Ukraine either. Yes, he asked for permission to send troops to foreign lands but the lawmakers never thought he would actually attack Ukraine. In fact, Putin never even needed that permission, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armed forces. He can send troops wherever he likes.

So, going to the parliament was a stunt and Putin likes stunts. He once dived deep into the Black sea, came up with two ancient greek urns. Putin said that he fetched the relics from the floor of the Black sea. But it was later revealed the show was staged.

We have seen Putin fishing, arm wrestling, posing bare-chested, riding a horse, hunting, showing off his butterfly skills in water, co-piloting a jet, attaching a satellite transmitter to a tiger. It seems Putin can survive the wild better than Bear Grylls.

Putin is talented, he's tough.

He's also the controller of facts and the teller of his own story. Just like his story of Ukraine. One where Russia is the victim, the people of Donbas are victims and a democratically elected government in Kiev is full of nazis. So, Putin decided to send troops on a de-nazification mission. Buildings have been flattened, innocent civilians have been killed.

Why ?

Because the Russian president thinks Ukraine and Russia are one and he does not let anything come between him and his motherland.

He's a boy from a working class family who climbed his way to the Kremlin and became the face of Moscow. He has the backing of powerful KGB officers and has Russia's richie rich on his side. He has been in power for 22 years now and has since meddled in the affairs of his neighbors, locked up oligarchs who did not align with him and silenced critics who challenged him. Putin has poisoned Russians abroad and has cracked down on the LGBTG community at home, tamed the media and recently arrested those protesting the war in Ukraine.

A 2020 vote made Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president for life. In the last 14 years he has gone to war thrice. He will remain in power until 2036. That's 14 more years and 13 more Soviet republics to go. Ukraine may just be the start. It seems that there is a lot to come.