Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin has dominated Russian politics since being appointed acting president on the last day of 1999, briefly stepping into the prime ministership between 2008 and 2012 to observe term-limit formalities before returning to the presidency. In 2020, a constitutional referendum reset his term count to zero, legally clearing a path for him to remain in office until 2036. Over more than two decades, his government has systematically dismantled independent media, jailed or exiled prominent opposition figures, and, according to reporting from Reuters' Europe desk, presided over the poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony in February 2024.

Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 marked the largest conventional war in Europe since 1945 and triggered sweeping Western sanctions, alongside an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued in March 2023 over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Domestically, wartime legislation has criminalized public criticism of the invasion, further narrowing space for dissent.