"No references to the need to fight terror can be an argument for restricting human rights. "

Vlad the Minister!

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the prime minister of the Russian Federation. He was the president of Russia from 2000 to 2008. He succeeded Boris Yeltsin in the post on December 31, 1999.

Vladimir Putin was the second president of the Russian Federation. He became the acting president of Russia on December 31, 1999, when Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned the post. Putin then won the presidential elections held on March 26, 2000. On March 14, 2004, Putin was re-elected to the presidency for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote.

Putin's second term as president ended on May 7, 2008. The Russian constitution does not allow a person to serve more than two consecutive presidential terms. However, Putin continues to effectively control the government of Russia. His hand-picked candidate to be the third president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, won the Russian presidential election of 2008, held on March 2, 2008. Prior to the election, Medvedev had declared that he would name Putin the prime minister of Russia, and made it clear that Putin would remain the man in charge of governing Russia.

Putin is a chairman of United Russia, a political party that holds 70 percent of the seats in the State Duma, the lower house.

Vladimir Putin grew up in poverty; his mother was a factory worker and his father was conscripted into the Soviet navy where he served in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. He had two older brothers who died very young; one a month after birth; the other succumbed to diphtheria during the siege of Leningrad.

After graduation from the International Department of the Law Faculty of the Loningrad State University in 1975, Putin was recruited by KGB and stationed in East Germany. He resigned from the position in August 1991. In 1994 he became the First Deputy Chairman of the city of Saint Petersburg. He was head of the FSB (a successor agency to KGB) from July 1998 until August 1999.

Putin was appointed prime minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin in August 1999. He gained immediate respect by many Russians for the invasions of Chechnya and Degestan. In December 1999, Yeltsin resigned, and Putin became the acting president.

He quickly gained authority over several republics, regions and administrative units. His leadership went towards reworking and reducing the size of the military. He won enactment of liberal economic reforms and ratification of international arms agreements, and also renewed ties with the former Soviet client states.

Putin won a re-election for a second term, earning 71 percent of the vote. The television stations supported his campaign, all of which are state own and controlled. His relationships with George W. Bush, Gerhard Schroder, Jacques Chirac, and Silvio Berlusconi, are generally friendly.

He is married to Liudmila Putina (born Lyudmila Shkrebneva), a former German teacher and airline stewardess. The couple has two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina. He and his family are members of the Russian Orthodox Church. He speaks fluent German, and has passable English. He practices the martial art of judo, which he began at the age of 14.