Putin's Consolidation of Power
How a former KGB officer systematically dismantled Russia's fragile democracy and built a personalist autocracy.
The Rise
Vladimir Putin's ascent was engineered by Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, who needed a loyal successor to guarantee their safety and the preservation of their wealth. Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who had served in East Germany and later became deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, was appointed head of the FSB (successor to the KGB) in 1998 and prime minister in August 1999.
He was virtually unknown to the Russian public. When asked about Putin, most Russians had no opinion — he had never held elected office and had no public profile. The apartment bombings of September 1999 and the launch of the Second Chechen War transformed him overnight from a faceless bureaucrat into a decisive leader willing to use force to protect Russians. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned and named Putin acting president. He won the March 2000 election with 53% in the first round.
Yeltsin's parting words were revealing: he asked Russians to 'take care of Russia.' His inner circle believed they had installed a manageable placeholder. They were spectacularly wrong.