In what was largely a formality, Vladimir Putin was confirmed in office in the Russian presidential elections with 52.9% of the vote on March 26, 2000.
The result of the elections was a foregone conclusion. When Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned from office on December 31, 1999, Putin, who had been prime minister since August 9, 1999, also took over the office of president as per the constitution.
Putin has now been in power , taking a strategic approach to his rise to become the autocratic and undisputed ruler of , even if he was not president for a few years.
A vacancy in the Kremlin
As the Russian constitution at the time did not allow a president to rule for more than two consecutive terms, there was a vacancy in the elections on May 7, 2008.
Putin’s confidant Dmitry Medvedev, former Chairman of the Gazprom Supervisory Board, replaced Putin in office. One day later, Russia’s parliament, the Duma, elected Putin as the new head of government with 87.1% of the vote at Medvedev’s suggestion. Even though Medvedev now held the highest office, Putin continued to pull the strings behind the scenes.
In the course of these 25 years, the Russian president has transformed his country into the “strongest personalized dictatorship in the world,” said Russian political scientist Mikhail Komin.
He told DW that this was only possible because, over the quarter century he has been in power, Putin has persistently undermined all of Russia’s political institutions.
Regional control as the foundation of power
It all began with the abolition of regional autonomy, Komin explained. The Kremlin created its instrument of control in the Russian regions, laying the foundation for a consolidation of power.
Another Russian political scientist, Grigory Nishnikov, based in Finland, shares this view. “If we think back to the Russia of the early Putin years, we can point to several autonomous centers of power, both constitutional and informal, such as the oligarchs,” he told DW. “They all formed a sort of counterweight to the Kremlin.”
Putin destroyed all this, said Nishnikov, centralized everything, and focused Russia’s system of power on himself.
However, he believes this isn’t the only reason why the Russian president has remained in power for so long. There have been plenty of events over the past 25 years that could have been dangerous for Putin, namely:
• the protests in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square following the 2011 parliamentary election,
• the risk of instability in after the Ukrainian peninsula was annexed in 2014,
• the unrest that followed the controversial pension reform in 2018,
• massive protests in support of the across Russia over the next few years,
• the start of the in early 2022, accompanied by protests on the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
However, every act of popular resistance was followed by even greater repression. “And new adversaries were always eliminated in the course of these events,” said Nishnikov. As a result, he does not believe there is anyone left now who could challenge Putin.
Putin and Trump: Brothers in spirit?
In terms of foreign policy, there are signs of a rapprochement between the United States and Russia, which began when US President had his first term in office (2017- 2021). The first personal meeting between Trump and Putin took place in July 2018 at the Russia-US summit in Helsinki.
“For Putin, Trump is the greatest gift of his political life,” explained political scientist and historian Helmut Müller-Enbergs in an interview with the German news platform T-Online.
That, said the expert from the University of Southern Denmark, has become evident during between Russia and Ukraine. Putin, said Müller-Enbergs, essentially offered Trump “[Ukraine’s] raw materials and the prospect of a fulfilled election promise” to end the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also recently hinted to the international press that Trump and Putin have a close relationship and speak to each other more often than previously assumed.
Weakening of the judiciary another key factor
Komin noted that another important factor that has enabled Putin to cling to power was the deliberate weakening of the courts that occurred during his second term. Chief justices loyal to the authorities were given greater powers over their subordinate colleagues.
As a result, Komin said, the Russian courts are no longer independent. They can at best slow down the processes of state repression directed against citizens, but they can no longer put a stop to it.
This has been compounded by changes to the electoral system in favor of Putin and his ruling party, United Russia.
Putin’s ‘shadow cabinet’
Instead of asserting himself against a democratic opposition, Putin has surrounded himself with a kind of shadow cabinet, according to Russian sociologist Alexander Bikbov. The president has gathered into this inner circle people with whom he shares specific business interests, Bikbov explained.
Their companies have been awarded large state contracts, which have made them huge amounts of money. “Putin always holds the reins and is personally involved in the business,” said Bikbov.
At the same time, society is being sold an image of Russia in which the country has only ever played a positive role throughout its entire history. All negative aspects are erased, all past conflicts obliterated, said Bikbov. He describes this as the “manipulation of the collective historical memory.” And this, too, reinforces Putin’s power.
This narrative portrays Russia as a society with traditional values; one that disapproves of conflict with the authorities, whereas unconditional loyalty to those in power is both applauded and taken for granted.
All three experts interviewed by DW agree that these tendencies will intensify in the future and that Putin will remain in power for a long time to come. “The problem is that there’s no alternative candidate, and no room for one,” said Komin. “The last election Putin really won was in 2004. Everything since then has been unfair.”
Nishnikov also commented that Russians see no alternative to Putin, and that they tend to be afraid of change. He observes that there has always been a tendency in Russia to favor a “strong hand” in government.
“They’ve always wanted a strong leader to make decisions and solve problems. If in doubt, Russians will complain about regional governors, not the president, along the lines of: If Putin only knew, he would solve the problem immediately!” This, Nishnikov said, is an age-old Russian tradition.
This article was originally written in German.
Correction, August 10, 2024: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Russian sociologist Alexander Bikbov. DW apologizes for the error.
This piece was first published on August 8, 2024, and updated on March 25, 2025, to reflect recent developments.
The post 25 years of Putin: Russia’s president cements his power appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
