{"id":74271,"date":"2025-05-04T16:28:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T16:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/74271\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T16:28:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T16:28:05","slug":"putins-25-years-in-power-how-he-transformed-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/74271\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin&#8217;s 25 Years in Power: How He Transformed Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Russian President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his first term on May 7, 2000, few analysts could have predicted that the 47-year-old democratically elected leader would one day seize control of the Russian state and remake Moscow into a revanchist power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I]f you had asked me or basically anyone whether Vladimir Putin would become the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, the response would have likely been either incredulous silence or uproarious laughter,\u201d Susan B. Glasser, FP\u2019s former editor in chief, <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2020\/05\/07\/how-putin-changed-russia-forever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> in 2020. \u201cPutin\u2019s main qualifications for the job \u2026 were that he was: young, articulate, and, literally, sober.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Russian President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his first term on May 7, 2000, few analysts could have predicted that the 47-year-old democratically elected leader would one day seize control of the Russian state and remake Moscow into a revanchist power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I]f you had asked me or basically anyone whether Vladimir Putin would become the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, the response would have likely been either incredulous silence or uproarious laughter,\u201d Susan B. Glasser, FP\u2019s former editor in chief, <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2020\/05\/07\/how-putin-changed-russia-forever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> in 2020. \u201cPutin\u2019s main qualifications for the job \u2026 were that he was: young, articulate, and, literally, sober.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-five years on, as Putin continues to consolidate control at home and prolong the war in Ukraine, we wanted to reflect on his reign. Below, you\u2019ll find some of our best essays on what drives Putin, how he transformed Russia, and where he fits into the arc of Russian history.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Putin (right) with his parents in 1985 just before his departure to East Germany as a KGB officer.\" class=\"image alignnone size-text_width wp-image-1084015 -fit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-Vladimir-putin-\u2013-deadly-grudges-childhood-history-russia-ukraine-war.jpg\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Putin (right) with his parents in 1985 just before his departure to East Germany as a KGB officer.<\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1084015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Putin (right) with his parents in 1985 just before his departure to East Germany as a KGB officer. Laski Diffusion\/via Getty Images <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2022\/07\/17\/putin-revenge-nato-west-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>How Putin Learned to Hold Deadly Grudges<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s president has been shaped by decades of bitterness and revenge, William Taubman writes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"565\" alt=\"Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks prior the military parade\" class=\"image alignnone size-text_width wp-image-1072747 -fit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/putin-russia-ukraine-ww2-nazi-GettyImages-52778135.jpg\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks prior the military parade<\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1072747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks prior the military parade of the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in WW II, on May 9, 2005 on the Red Square in Moscow. YURI KADOBNOV\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2022\/03\/13\/putin-russia-war-ukraine-rhetoric-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Intellectual Catastrophe of Vladimir Putin<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The meaning of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine is its own national weakness, Paul Berman writes.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Various photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin\" class=\"image alignnone size-text_width wp-image-1005147 -fit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Putin-Grid-Lede.jpg\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Various photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1005147\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2020\/05\/07\/how-putin-changed-russia-forever\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>How Putin Changed Russia Forever<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2020, 11 leading experts looked back at his reign and predicted what the future may bring.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" alt=\"A black and white photo of a man standing at a podium holding his arm out.\" class=\"image alignnone size-text_width wp-image-1142037 -fit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Alexander-Solzhenitsyn-Russia-Putin-GettyImages-515408016.jpg\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        A black and white photo of a man standing at a podium holding his arm out.<\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1142037\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn speaks at Harvard University on June 8, 1978, where he said that the most noticeable thing about the West is what he called \u201cdecline in courage.\u201d Bettmann Archive\/Getty Images <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2024\/04\/07\/putin-russia-nationalism-solzhenitsyn-became-putins-spiritual-guru-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>How Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Became Putin\u2019s Spiritual Guru<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Casey Michel tells the strange story of a global literary hero who went on to inspire Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"A collage illustration shows half of the face of Joseph Stalin and half of the face of a larger Vladimir Putin alongside a star with a Z on top of it.\" class=\"image alignnone size-text_width wp-image-1140427 -fit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/putin-stalin-soviet-illustration-GettyImages-1245868480-HP.jpg\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        A collage illustration shows half of the face of Joseph Stalin and half of the face of a larger Vladimir Putin alongside a star with a Z on top of it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1140427\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Foreign Policy illustration\/Getty Images <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2024\/03\/24\/russia-putin-stalin-soviet-election-war-repression-political-prisoners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Russia Is Back to the Stalinist Future<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With a Soviet-style election, Putin\u2019s Russia has come full circle, Adrian Karatnycky writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Russian President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his first term on May 7, 2000, few analysts&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[18904,6219,36765,332,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-74271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-eastern-europe","9":"tag-homepage_regional_europe","10":"tag-post-to-buffer","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}