On New Year’s Eve 1999, Boris Yeltsin handed power to Vladimir Putin, a little-known former KGB foreign intelligence officer. Putin went on to change Russia through tight control at home and military force abroad. A quarter century later, his actions have fundamentally altered the global order.
Early Promise Gives Way to Control
“The freedom of speech, conscience, media, and property rights will be protected by the state,” Putin told Russians in his first address as president. Within months, masked police stormed NTV, Russia’s main independent television channel. By 2002, the Kremlin controlled all major broadcasters.
Putin won early praise from Western leaders. Tony Blair welcomed him to London in 2000. The Queen hosted him at Buckingham Palace in 2003, where Prince Charles greeted him on a red carpet. “I looked the man in the eye… I found him straightforward and trustworthy,” US President George W. Bush said after meeting Putin in 2001.
Putin’s first show of force was the war in Chechnya. Russian troops crushed the breakaway region at a cost of 80,000 lives. By 2009, Chechnya fell under control of pro-Moscow leaders. Chechen fighters would become instrumental in Putin’s later wars.
Building Middle East Power Base
Putin turned to the Middle East as Western ties frayed. His 2013 intervention initially saved Syria’s Bashar al-Assad from defeat, giving Russia a Mediterranean naval base: Tartus. Ties with Iran grew closer through military cooperation and shared opposition to US power.
The Syria campaign showed that Putin would back allies militarily. It also tested weapons and tactics later used in Ukraine. Russian forces gained combat experience while Putin courted Arab leaders wary of US influence or excess dependence on Washington in the region.
Breaking the Western Bloc
Putin sought to fracture Western alliances by cultivating ties with individual European leaders. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who supported the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2005, joined Russian energy companies like Gazprom in 2006.
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán consistently opposed EU sanctions on Russia, particularly following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Meanwhile, Putin’s backing of Brexit campaigners in the lead-up to the 2016 referendum and his support for right-wing parties across Europe further widened divisions within the continent.
Putin’s Russian Backyard
The 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine changed Putin’s outlook. When protesters forced a rerun of rigged elections, bringing pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to power, Putin saw American plots at work. His stance towards the West hardened.
“He didn’t consider Ukraine to be an independent state,” says Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin’s prime minister from 2000-2004. “The issue of respect for Putin became central. When Western countries criticised him over human rights, Putin saw this as disrespect”.
Putin tested Western resolve in 2008 by sending troops into Georgia. The brief war gave Russia control of 20% of Georgian territory. Six years later, Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine and backed ethnic Russian insurgents in Ukraine’s east.
War Brings International Isolation
Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine caps years of growing animosity towards the West. The war has cost Russia 150,000 to 200,000 military dead and brought harsh sanctions. Yet Putin tells Russians they face a fight for survival against NATO aggression.
The war has changed daily life in Russia. New laws ban criticism of the military. Many opponents have fled abroad. Those who stay face arrest for speaking out. Inflation eats away at savings while sanctions cut Russia off from Western technology and markets.
In his New Year speech celebrating 25 years in power, Putin praised Russia’s soldiers and declared 2025 “the year of the Defender of the Motherland”. As of January 2025, Russia controls a near fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Russia’s Future After Putin
At 72, Putin gives no hint of stepping down. He has eliminated rivals, crushed dissent, and built a system of power that revolves around him. Former NATO chief Lord Robertson sees a changed man: “The Putin I met with, did good business with, established a NATO-Russia Council with, is very different from this almost megalomaniac at the present moment”.
Putin tells Russians they’ve “pulled back from the abyss” under his rule. Though wars and sanctions have battered Russia’s economy, Putin’s reign has shifted global politics. His challenge to Western power has aligned with global trends, as the axis of power shifts to the Global South outside of Bretton Woods Institutions, through the expansion of the BRICS.
As Putin enters a significant juncture in office, his legacy may lie not in military victories, but in accelerating the world’s shift toward multipolarity.
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