Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 and is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer, serving as the current president of Russia.
196 Facts About Vladimir Putin
2.
Vladimir Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg.
3.
Vladimir Putin moved to Moscow in 1996 to join the administration of president Boris Yeltsin.
4.
Vladimir Putin briefly served as director of the Federal Security Service and secretary of the Security Council of Russia, before being appointed prime minister in August 1999.
5.
Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, in an election marred by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in 2018.
6.
Vladimir Putin led Russia during a war against Chechen separatists, reestablishing federal control of the region.
7.
Vladimir Putin ordered a military intervention in Syria to support Russian ally Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war, eventually securing a deal that granted permanent naval bases in the Eastern Mediterranean.
8.
Vladimir Putin's Russia has scored poorly on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, Freedom House's Freedom in the World index, and the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.
9.
Vladimir Putin is the second-longest currently serving European president, after Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
10.
Vladimir Putin's grandfather, Spiridon Putin, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.
11.
Vladimir Putin's birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers: Albert, born in the 1930s, died in infancy, and Viktor, born in 1940, died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany's forces in World War II.
12.
Vladimir Putin's mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s.
13.
On 1 September 1960, Vladimir Putin started at School No 193 at Baskov Lane, near his home.
14.
Vladimir Putin was one of a few in his class of about 45 pupils who were not yet members of the Young Pioneer organization.
15.
Vladimir Putin studied German at Saint Petersburg High School 281 and speaks German as a second language.
16.
Vladimir Putin studied law at the Leningrad State University named after Andrei Zhdanov in 1970 and graduated in 1975.
17.
Vladimir Putin's thesis was on "The Most Favored Nation Trading Principle in International Law".
18.
Vladimir Putin met Anatoly Sobchak, an assistant professor who taught business law, and who later became the co-author of the Russian constitution and of corruption schemes in France.
19.
Vladimir Putin would be influential in Sobchak's career in Saint Petersburg, and Sobchak would be influential in Vladimir Putin's career in Moscow.
20.
In 1975, Vladimir Putin joined the KGB and trained at the 401st KGB School in Okhta, Leningrad.
21.
In September 1984, Vladimir Putin was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute.
22.
Multiple reports have suggested Vladimir Putin was sent by the KGB to New Zealand, corroborated through New Zealand eyewitness accounts and government records.
23.
Vladimir Putin allegedly worked for some time undercover as a Bata shoe salesman in central Wellington.
24.
Vladimir Putin has publicly conveyed delight over his activities in Dresden, once recounting his confrontations with anti-communist protestors of 1989 who attempted the occupation of Stasi buildings in the city.
25.
Vladimir Putin's work was downplayed by former Stasi spy chief Markus Wolf and Putin's former KGB colleague Vladimir Usoltsev.
26.
Klaus Zuchold, who claimed to be recruited by Vladimir Putin, said that Vladimir Putin handled a neo-Nazi, Rainer Sonntag, and attempted to recruit an author of a study on poisons.
27.
Vladimir Putin reportedly met Germans to be recruited for wireless communications affairs together with an interpreter.
28.
Vladimir Putin was involved in wireless communications technologies in South-East Asia due to trips of German engineers, recruited by him, there and to the West.
29.
Vladimir Putin explained that many documents were left to Germany only because the furnace burst but many documents of the KGB villa were sent to Moscow.
30.
Vladimir Putin returned to Leningrad in early 1990 as a member of the "active reserves", where he worked for about three months with the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University, reporting to Vice-Rector Yuriy Molchanov, while working on his doctoral dissertation.
31.
Vladimir Putin said: "As soon as the coup began, I immediately decided which side I was on", although he noted that the choice was hard because he had spent the best part of his life with "the organs".
32.
In May 1990, Vladimir Putin was appointed as an advisor on international affairs to the mayor of Leningrad Anatoly Sobchak.
33.
In March 1994, Vladimir Putin was appointed as first deputy chairman of the Government of Saint Petersburg.
34.
In June 1996, Sobchak lost his bid for reelection in Saint Petersburg, and Vladimir Putin, who had led his election campaign, resigned from his positions in the city administration.
35.
Vladimir Putin moved to Moscow and was appointed as deputy chief of the Presidential Property Management Department headed by Pavel Borodin.
36.
Vladimir Putin was responsible for the foreign property of the state and organized the transfer of the former assets of the Soviet Union and the CPSU to the Russian Federation.
37.
On 25 May 1998, Vladimir Putin was appointed First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Staff for the regions, in succession to Viktoriya Mitina.
38.
In 1999, Vladimir Putin described communism as "a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization".
39.
On 9 August 1999, Vladimir Putin was appointed one of three first deputy prime ministers, and later on that day, was appointed acting prime minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by President Yeltsin.
40.
Later on that same day, Vladimir Putin agreed to run for the presidency.
41.
Vladimir Putin was initially regarded as a Yeltsin loyalist; like other prime ministers of Boris Yeltsin, Putin did not choose ministers himself, his cabinet was determined by the presidential administration.
42.
On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned and, according to the Constitution of Russia, Vladimir Putin became Acting President of the Russian Federation.
43.
The first presidential decree that Vladimir Putin signed on 31 December 1999 was titled "On guarantees for the former president of the Russian Federation and the members of his family".
44.
On 12 February 2001, Vladimir Putin signed a similar federal law which replaced the decree of 1999.
45.
The inauguration of President Vladimir Putin occurred on 7 May 2000.
46.
Vladimir Putin appointed the minister of finance, Mikhail Kasyanov, as prime minister.
47.
The first major challenge to Vladimir Putin's popularity came in August 2000, when he was criticized for the alleged mishandling of the Kursk submarine disaster.
48.
Between 2000 and 2004, Vladimir Putin set about the reconstruction of the impoverished condition of the country, apparently winning a power-struggle with the Russian oligarchs, reaching a 'grand bargain' with them.
49.
The near 10-year period prior to the rise of Vladimir Putin after the dissolution of Soviet rule was a time of upheaval in Russia.
50.
The death of Politkovskaya triggered international criticism, with accusations that Vladimir Putin had failed to protect the country's new independent media.
51.
Vladimir Putin himself said that her death caused the government more problems than her writings.
52.
In February 2007, at the Munich Security Conference Vladimir Putin complained about the feeling of insecurity engendered by the dominant position in geopolitics of the United States, and observed that a former NATO official had made rhetorical promises not to expand into new countries in Eastern Europe.
53.
On 14 July 2007, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would suspend implementation of its Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe obligations, effective after 150 days, and suspend its ratification of the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty which treaty was shunned by NATO members abeyant Russian withdrawal from Transnistria and the Republic of Georgia.
54.
On 12 September 2007, Vladimir Putin dissolved the government upon the request of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
55.
Vladimir Putin was barred from a third consecutive term by the Constitution.
56.
Vladimir Putin has said that overcoming the consequences of the world economic crisis was one of the two main achievements of his second premiership.
57.
At the United Russia Congress in Moscow on 24 September 2011, Medvedev officially proposed that Vladimir Putin stand for the presidency in 2012, an offer Vladimir Putin accepted.
58.
Protesters criticized Vladimir Putin and United Russia and demanded annulment of the election results.
59.
Vladimir Putin allegedly organized a number of paramilitary groups loyal to himself and to the United Russia party in the period between 2005 and 2012.
60.
Vladimir Putin revealed that the two men had long ago cut a deal to allow Putin to run for president in 2012.
61.
Anti-Vladimir Putin protests took place during and directly after the presidential campaign.
62.
Vladimir Putin's presidency was inaugurated in the Kremlin on 7 May 2012.
63.
In June 2013, Vladimir Putin attended a televised rally of the All-Russia People's Front where he was elected head of the movement, which was set up in 2011.
64.
In October 2014, Vladimir Putin addressed Russian security concerns in Sochi at the Valdai International Discussion Club.
65.
In December 2015, Vladimir Putin admitted that Russian military intelligence officers were operating in Ukraine.
66.
In July 2015, he opined that this policy shift could be understood as Vladimir Putin trying to defend nations in Russia's sphere of influence from "encroaching western power".
67.
On 30 September 2015, President Vladimir Putin authorized Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, following a formal request by the Syrian government for military help against rebel and jihadist groups.
68.
In January 2017, a US intelligence community assessment expressed high confidence that Vladimir Putin personally ordered an influence campaign, initially to denigrate Hillary Clinton and to harm her electoral chances and potential presidency, then later developing "a clear preference" for Donald Trump.
69.
In July 2018, The New York Times reported that the CIA had long nurtured a Russian source who eventually rose to a position close to Vladimir Putin, allowing the source to pass key information in 2016 about Vladimir Putin's direct involvement.
70.
Vladimir Putin continued similar attempts in the 2020 US presidential election.
71.
On 15 May 2018, Vladimir Putin took part in the opening of the movement along the highway section of the Crimean bridge.
72.
On 18 May 2018, Vladimir Putin signed decrees on the composition of the new Government.
73.
On 25 May 2018, Vladimir Putin announced that he would not run for president in 2024, justifying this in compliance with the Russian Constitution.
74.
On 14 June 2018, Vladimir Putin opened the 21st FIFA World Cup, which took place in Russia for the first time.
75.
On 18 October 2018, Vladimir Putin said Russians will 'go to Heaven as martyrs' in the event of a nuclear war as he would only use nuclear weapons in retaliation.
76.
In September 2019, Vladimir Putin's administration interfered with the results of Russia's nationwide regional elections and manipulated it by eliminating all candidates in the opposition.
77.
Vladimir Putin suggested major constitutional amendments that could extend his political power after presidency.
78.
Vladimir Putin suggested that Medvedev take the newly created post of deputy chairman of the Security Council.
79.
On 15 March 2020, Vladimir Putin instructed to form a Working Group of the State Council to counteract the spread of coronavirus.
80.
On 22 March 2020, after a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Vladimir Putin arranged the Russian army to send military medics, special disinfection vehicles and other medical equipment to Italy, which was the European country hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
81.
Vladimir Putin added that the next week would be a nationwide paid holiday and urged Russians to stay at home.
82.
Vladimir Putin announced a list of measures of social protection, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and changes in fiscal policy.
83.
Vladimir Putin announced the following measures for microenterprises, small- and medium-sized businesses: deferring tax payments for the next six months, cutting the size of social security contributions in half, deferring social security contributions, deferring loan repayments for the next six months, a six-month moratorium on fines, debt collection, and creditors' applications for bankruptcy of debtor enterprises.
84.
On 2 April 2020, Vladimir Putin again issued an address in which he announced prolongation of the non-working time until 30 April.
85.
Vladimir Putin likened Russia's fight against COVID-19 to Russia's battles with invading Pecheneg and Cuman steppe nomads in the 10th and 11th centuries.
86.
In June 2021, Vladimir Putin said he was fully vaccinated against the disease with the Sputnik V vaccine, emphasising that while vaccinations should be voluntary, making them mandatory in some professions would slow down the spread of COVID-19.
87.
Vladimir Putin signed an executive order on 3 July 2020 to officially insert amendments into the Russian Constitution, allowing him to run for two additional six-year terms.
88.
On 22 December 2020, Vladimir Putin signed a bill giving lifetime prosecutorial immunity to Russian ex-presidents.
89.
Vladimir Putin met Iran President Ebrahim Raisi in January 2022 to lay the groundwork for a 20-year deal between the two nations.
90.
On 30 November 2021, Vladimir Putin stated that an enlargement of NATO in Ukraine would be a "red line" issue for Russia.
91.
The Kremlin repeatedly denied that it had any plans to invade Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin himself dismissed such fears as "alarmist".
92.
On 21 February 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the two self proclaimed separatist republics in Donbas as independent states and made an address concerning the events in Ukraine.
93.
Vladimir Putin was persuaded to invade Ukraine by a small group of his closest associates, especially Nikolai Patrushev, Yury Kovalchuk and Alexander Bortnikov.
94.
The invasion led to numerous calls for Vladimir Putin to be pursued with war crime charges.
95.
In January 2023, Vladimir Putin cited recognition of Russia's sovereignty over the annexed territories as a condition for peace talks with Ukraine.
96.
On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin's arrest, alleging that Vladimir Putin held criminal responsibility in the illegal deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
97.
In July 2000, according to a law proposed by Vladimir Putin and approved by the Federal Assembly of Russia, Vladimir Putin gained the right to dismiss the heads of the 89 federal subjects.
98.
Vladimir Putin succeeded in codifying land law and tax law and promulgated new codes on labor, administrative, criminal, commercial and civil procedural law.
99.
Under Medvedev's presidency, Vladimir Putin's government implemented some key reforms in the area of state security, the Russian police reform and the Russian military reform.
100.
In 2006, Vladimir Putin launched an industry consolidation programme to bring the main aircraft-producing companies under a single umbrella organization, the United Aircraft Corporation.
101.
In 2014, Vladimir Putin signed a deal to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
102.
Power of Siberia, which Vladimir Putin has called the "world's biggest construction project", was launched in 2019 and is expected to continue for 30 years at an ultimate cost to China of $400bn.
103.
In 2004, Vladimir Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol treaty designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
104.
Vladimir Putin regularly attends the most important services of the Russian Orthodox Church on the main holy days, and has established a good relationship with Patriarchs of the Russian Church, the late Alexy II of Moscow and the current Kirill of Moscow.
105.
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said Vladimir Putin "paid great attention to the needs of our community and related to us with a deep respect".
106.
In 2016, Ronald S Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, praised Putin for making Russia "a country where Jews are welcome".
107.
In 2016, Vladimir Putin oversaw the passage of legislation that prohibited missionary activity in Russia.
108.
Some analysts believe that this nuclear strategy under Vladimir Putin has brought Russia into violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
109.
Vladimir Putin has sought to increase Russian territorial claims in the Arctic and its military presence there.
110.
In 2020, Vladimir Putin signed a law on labelling individuals and organizations receiving funding from abroad as "foreign agents".
111.
Vladimir Putin has promoted explicitly conservative policies in social, cultural, and political matters, both at home and abroad.
112.
Vladimir Putin has attacked globalism and neoliberalism, and is identified by scholars with Russian conservatism.
113.
Vladimir Putin has promoted new think tanks that bring together like-minded intellectuals and writers.
114.
In cultural and social affairs Vladimir Putin has collaborated closely with the Russian Orthodox Church.
115.
Still others appreciate that Vladimir Putin defends some although not all Orthodox teachings, whether or not he believes in them himself.
116.
Vladimir Putin supported the 2020 Russian constitutional referendum, which passed and defined marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman in the Constitution of Russia.
117.
In 2007, Vladimir Putin led a successful effort on behalf of Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics, the first Winter Olympic Games to ever be hosted by Russia.
118.
In 2013, Vladimir Putin stated that gay athletes would not face any discrimination at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
119.
In October 2022, Vladimir Putin described India and China as "close allies and partners".
120.
Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has maintained positive relations with the Asian states of SCO and BRICS, which include China, India, Pakistan, and post-Soviet states of Central Asia.
121.
Vladimir Putin voiced his willingness of constructing a rail bridge between the two countries.
122.
Vladimir Putin made three visits to Mongolia and has enjoyed good relations with its neighbor.
123.
Vladimir Putin became the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit Indonesia in half a century in 2007, resulting in the signing of an arms deal.
124.
The relations between Russia and the Philippines received a boost in 2016 as Vladimir Putin forged closer bilateral ties with his Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte.
125.
Vladimir Putin has good relations with Malaysia and its then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, as well as with Bangladesh, signing a nuclear power deal with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
126.
Vladimir Putin made the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit North Korea, meeting Kim Jong-il in July 2000, shortly after a visit to South Korea.
127.
Vladimir Putin criticized violence in Myanmar against Rohingya minorities in 2017.
128.
In December 2004, Vladimir Putin criticized the Rose and Orange revolutions, saying: "If you have permanent revolutions you risk plunging the post-Soviet space into endless conflict".
129.
Vladimir Putin allegedly declared at a NATO-Russia summit in 2008 that if Ukraine joined NATO Russia could contend to annex the Ukrainian East and Crimea.
130.
Vladimir Putin went on to declare that the February 2014 ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had been orchestrated by the West as an attempt to weaken Russia.
131.
In late August 2014, Vladimir Putin stated: "People who have their own views on history and the history of our country may argue with me, but it seems to me that the Russian and Ukrainian peoples are practically one people".
132.
Vladimir Putin endorsed the idea of a Eurasian Union in 2011; the concept was proposed by the president of Kazakhstan in 1994.
133.
On 22 December 2022, Vladimir Putin addressed the Security Council in a speech where he did not use the term "Special Military Operation" but instead called the fighting in Ukraine a "war".
134.
Anti-Vladimir Putin activists have called for Vladimir Putin to be prosecuted for breaking a law passed to stop people calling the Special Military Operation a war.
135.
From 2003, when Russia strongly opposed the US when it waged the Iraq War, Vladimir Putin became ever more distant from the West, and relations steadily deteriorated.
136.
Vladimir Putin's view was that concessions by the West on one of the questions might be met with concessions from Russia on another.
137.
In February 2007, Vladimir Putin criticized what he called the United States' monopolistic dominance in global relations, and "almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations".
138.
Vladimir Putin opposed Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, warning that it would destabilize the whole system of international relations.
139.
In March 2014, Vladimir Putin used Kosovo's declaration of independence as a justification for recognizing the independence of Crimea, citing the so-called "Kosovo independence precedent".
140.
Vladimir Putin had a very friendly and warm relationship with the former Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi; the two leaders often described their relationship as a close friendship, continuing to organize bilateral meetings even after Berlusconi's resignation in November 2011.
141.
In late 2013, Russian-American relations deteriorated further when the United States canceled a summit for the first time since 1960 after Vladimir Putin gave asylum to American Edward Snowden, who had leaked massive amounts of classified information from the NSA.
142.
Vladimir Putin gave a speech highly critical of the United States, accusing them of destabilizing world order and trying to "reshape the world" to its own benefit.
143.
In June 2015, Vladimir Putin said that Russia has no intention of attacking NATO.
144.
On 9 November 2016, Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on becoming the 45th president of the United States.
145.
In December 2016, US intelligence officials quoted by CBS News stated that Vladimir Putin approved the email hacking and cyber attacks during the US election, against the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
146.
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly accused Hillary Clinton, who served as US secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, of interfering in Russia's internal affairs, and in December 2016, Clinton accused Vladimir Putin of having a personal grudge against her.
147.
On 18 June 2020, The National Interest published a nine thousand word essay by Vladimir Putin, titled "The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II".
148.
On 21 February 2023, Vladimir Putin suspended Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.
149.
Vladimir Putin is a strongman, and that is very inspiring to Bolsonaro.
150.
In September 2007, Vladimir Putin visited Indonesia and in doing so became the first Russian leader to visit the country in more than 50 years.
151.
Amid calls to ban Vladimir Putin from attending the 2014 G20 Summit, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he would "shirtfront" the Russian leader over the shooting down of MH17 by Russian backed rebels, which had killed 38 Australians.
152.
On 16 October 2007, Vladimir Putin visited Iran to participate in the Second Caspian Summit in Tehran, where he met with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
153.
At a press conference after the summit Vladimir Putin said that "all our states have the right to develop their peaceful nuclear programmes without any restrictions".
154.
Vladimir Putin was quoted as describing Iran as a "partner", though he expressed concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme.
155.
Vladimir Putin echoed Assad's argument that anti-regime militants were responsible for much of the bloodshed.
156.
On 11 September 2013, The New York Times published an op-ed by Vladimir Putin urging caution against US intervention in Syria and criticizing American exceptionalism.
157.
Vladimir Putin subsequently helped to arrange for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons.
158.
Some analysts have summarized Vladimir Putin as being allied with Shiites and Alawites in the Middle East.
159.
In 2017, Vladimir Putin dispatched Russian PMCs to back the Touadera regime in the Central African Republic Civil War, gaining a permanent military presence in return.
160.
In October 2019, Vladimir Putin visited the United Arab Emirates, where six agreements were struck with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.
161.
On 22 October 2021, Vladimir Putin highlighted the "unique bond" between Russia and Israel during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
162.
In February 2015, based on new domestic polling, Vladimir Putin was ranked the world's most popular politician.
163.
In general, most Russians believe that it would be better if Vladimir Putin remained president for as long as possible.
164.
Vladimir Putin has cultivated a cult of personality for himself with an outdoorsy, sporty, tough guy public image, demonstrating his physical prowess and taking part in unusual or dangerous acts, such as extreme sports and interaction with wild animals, part of a public relations approach that, according to Wired, "deliberately cultivates the macho, take-charge superhero image".
165.
In 2007, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge photograph of a shirtless Vladimir Putin vacationing in the Siberian mountains under the headline "Be Like Vladimir Putin".
166.
Some of Vladimir Putin's activities have been criticised for being staged; outside of Russia, his macho image has been the subject of parody.
167.
Vladimir Putin's height has been estimated by Kremlin insiders to be between 155 and 165 centimetres tall but is usually given at 170 centimetres.
168.
Vladimir Putin was ranked the second most powerful individual by Forbes in 2018.
169.
Vladimir Putin has produced many aphorisms and catch-phrases known as putinisms.
170.
Vladimir Putin is known for his often tough and sharp language, often alluding to Russian jokes and folk sayings.
171.
Vladimir Putin sometimes uses Russian criminal jargon, albeit not always correctly.
172.
Vladimir Putin's shifting of Russia towards autocracy and weakening of the system of representative government advocated by Boris Yeltsin has met with criticism.
173.
Vladimir Putin was described in 2015 as a "dictator" by political opponent Garry Kasparov, and as the "Tsar of corruption" in 2016 by opposition activist and blogger Alexei Navalny.
174.
In 2015, opposition politician Boris Nemtsov said that Vladimir Putin was turning Russia into a "raw materials colony" of China.
175.
On 31 December 2022, President Vladimir Putin gave a New Year's address before a group of soldiers and other members of the Russian armed forces.
176.
On 28 July 1983, Vladimir Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva, and they lived together in East Germany from 1985 to 1990.
177.
Vladimir Putin has two grandsons, born in 2012 and 2017, through Maria.
178.
Vladimir Putin reportedly has a granddaughter, born in 2017, through Katerina.
179.
Vladimir Putin's cousin, Igor Putin, was a director at Moscow-based Master Bank and was accused in a number of money-laundering scandals.
180.
Vladimir Putin has been known on occasion to give watches valued at thousands of dollars as gifts, for example a watch identified as a Blancpain to a Siberian boy he met while on vacation in 2009, and another similar watch to a factory worker the same year.
181.
The German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung regards the possibility of Vladimir Putin's family profiting from this money as plausible.
182.
In 2012, Sergei Kolesnikov, a former business associate of Vladimir Putin's, told the BBC's Newsnight programme that he had been ordered by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to oversee the building of the palace.
183.
Vladimir Putin said that the mansion, built on government land and sporting three helipads, plus a private road paid for from state funds and guarded by officials wearing uniforms of the official Kremlin guard service, have been built for Putin's private use.
184.
Since the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin prefers to travel in an armored train to flying.
185.
Vladimir Putin has received five dogs from various nation leaders: Konni, Buffy, Yume, Verni and Pasha.
186.
When Vladimir Putin first became president, the family had two poodles, Tosya and Rodeo.
187.
Vladimir Putin's mother was a devoted Christian believer who attended the Russian Orthodox Church, while his father was an atheist.
188.
Shortly before an official visit to Israel, Vladimir Putin's mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed.
189.
Vladimir Putin has been practicing judo since he was 11 years old, before switching to sambo at the age of fourteen.
190.
Vladimir Putin won competitions in both sports in Leningrad.
191.
Vladimir Putin was awarded eighth dan of the black belt in 2012, becoming the first Russian to achieve the status.
192.
Vladimir Putin was rewarded an eighth-degree karate black belt in 2014.
193.
Vladimir Putin co-authored a book entitled Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin in Russian, and Judo: History, Theory, Practice in English.
194.
In March 2022, Vladimir Putin was removed from all positions in the International Judo Federation due to the Russian war in Ukraine.
195.
In July 2022, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, stated they had no evidence to suggest Vladimir Putin was unstable or in bad health.
196.
The Russian political magazine Sobesednik alleged in 2018 that Vladimir Putin had a sensory room installed in his private residence in the Novgorod Oblast.