Who is Vladimir Putin?
Fox Nation offers a deep dive into the polarizing figure who has dominated Russian politics since 2000
Fox Nation debuted a timely special entitled 'Who is Vladimir Putin?' Monday amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The new program, available to stream exclusively on Fox Nation, is hosted by Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade.
The special serves as a deep dive into the polarizing figure who has dominated Russian politics since 2000. Kilmeade and his panel of experts examine his background, his mindset, and his vision – all to answer the question, ‘Who is Vladimir Putin?’
Putin, the current president of Russia who has served for 17 non-consecutive years, was born in what is now-Saint Petersburg in 1952.
As the special explores, Putin idolized the Soviet security agency, KGB, in his youth. He was recruited after earning a law degree from Leningrad University. While stationed in East Germany, a crowd surrounded the KGB building during the revolutions of 1989. Putin called for reinforcements, to no avail.
"What really, really frightened Putin is that he could not get Moscow on the line," Russian-born U.S. Intelligence Expert Rebekah Koffler said in the special. "From that point on, he decided that Russia will never be weak again."
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After the Soviet Union’s collapse, he worked for the then-mayor of Saint Petersburg until 1996. Two years later, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin appointed him to be director of the main successor organization to the KGB.
In 1999, Putin became prime minister and Yeltsin’s intended successor, despite having little political experience.
"Yeltsin identifies him as someone who he thinks is good at his job, sort of carries out what he's supposed to do without much fuss," Syracuse University professor Brian Taylor said in the special.
Despite being originally unknown and unpopular, he won the 2000 popular vote after apartment bombings were attributed to Chechen terrorists. Putin resonated with the Russian people by declaring the Second Chechen War.
"While everyone in the West was expecting Russia to become a democracy, was expecting to reap the proverbial peace dividend, that was never in the cards," Koffler said.
The Russian economy and standard of living improved in the early 2000s, causing public support for Putin to increase. After re-election in 2004, he began speaking out against the United States as a threat to Russia.
His second term was also characterized by the suppression of political satire and opposition.
"By his nature, he is a typical Soviet, product of the Soviet system, someone who has no imagination of his own, who worships power and does not have any kind of ethical framework," journalist David Satter added.
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In 2007, Putin gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference which ‘rattled the entire diplomatic and military community in the West,’ Koffler said. Dmitry Medvedev then took over in 2008 as a ‘marionette’ until Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, who effectively cracked down on protests, press and U.S.-associated organizations.
In 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in response to the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv and, according to Koffler, later interfered with the 2016 election as a strategy to ‘destabilize the United States.'
"Everything that Putin has done ever since he became president in 2000 has been predicated on the belief that a war between the United States and Russia is inevitable," Koffler said.
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