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A life on the world stage, but scant biographical details: What we know of the life of Vladimir Putin
- He was born 1952 in what used to be Leningrad, USSR and is now St. Petersburg,, Russia.
- Over the last 20 years, Putin has consolidated his grip on power by transforming many Russian institutions.
- Because of his political longevity, Putin has seen five U.S.
presidents come and four go.
MOSCOW – For as long as he's been in the public eye, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a closed book, with relatively few confirmed facts about his real thinking on foreign affairs and what motivates his policy actions.
His personal life, too, has been shrouded in mystery and controversy.
And now the Putin enigma is testing the world again because of fears he may launch an invasion of Ukraine, Russia's western neighbor, and what this could mean for Ukraine's fragile democracy and the broader U.S.
and European security order in place on the continent for decades.
With the crisis deepenin