Vladimir Putin

 Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin[c] (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served in a continuous capacity as president or prime minister from 1999. He was prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and then from 2008 until 2012, and then as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012.Putin was an KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel prior to leaving in 1991 to pursue his political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he moved to Moscow to join the Boris Yeltsin administration. In his role as secretary of the Security Council of Russia and director of the Federal Security Service, he was appointed the prime minister in August 1999. Putin was elected to his first term in 1999 following Yeltsin quit. He was reelected in 2004. Putin was limited by constitutional law to only two years as president. Putin was also the prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev from 2008 to 2012. He was elected president in 2012 following an election marred by accusations of fraud and protests. He was reelected in the year 2018. In April 2021, after the results of a referendum, he ratified into law constitutional amendments, including one that allowed him to run for reelection once in the future, possibly prolonging his presidency to 2036.