In 1999, Russian president Boris Yeltsin dismissed his prime minister and promoted former KGB officer Vladimir Putin in his place. Putin was then reelected in 2004.
In April 2005, he made a historic visit to Israel - the first visit there by any Kremlin leader.
Putin could not run for the presidency again in 2008, but was appointed prime minister by his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin was re-elected to the presidency in March 2012 and later won a fourth term. In 2014, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2022, Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In response to the sanctions that followed, he put the Strategic Rocket Forces nuclear deterrence units on high alert.
"Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain." ― Vladimir Putin
This is the descriptive, concise biography of Vladimir Putin.