Who is Vladimir Putin - BBC News - video Dailymotion

Feelings Drama

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00:00Vladimir Putin grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War.

00:03In 1945, the US, the UK and the Soviet Union met to shape the new world.

00:09Seven years on, he was born in what was then Leningrad and is now St. Petersburg.

00:13By the 70s, Putin had studied law and then joined the Russian secret service, the KGB.

00:19At this time, the Soviet Union's influence reached across the communist nations of Eastern Europe.

00:24And in the 80s, Putin was posted to Dresden in East Germany.

00:27From there, he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of communism.

00:31This was a visceral example of people power.

00:35To Putin, though, the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

00:41And while that demise was negotiated, Putin was heading home to find a place for himself in the new Russia.

00:47Russia's president in the 90s, Boris Yeltsin, would help him do that.

00:50He made Putin head of the security services.

00:53Then Putin was elected prime minister.

00:55Then, in 1999, Yeltsin resigned.

00:58Putin was president.

01:00And his way of operating was clear from the start.

01:03Tightening the grip over media was one of the first things that he did.

01:10And also the lack of genuine opposition,

01:13because his critics either have been in exile or dead or are facing prosecution.

01:19Putin's focus on his own power and wealth was relentless.

01:23By 2008, when his two terms were up, Dmitry Medvedev replaced him as president.

01:28But Putin became prime minister and everyone knew who was in charge.

01:32By 2012, he was back as president again.

01:35And Putin's indifference to democracy is matched by his view of sovereignty.

01:40In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia to support separatists.

01:43In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

01:47It supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.

01:49And in 2018, a former Russian secret service operative was poisoned in Salisbury.

01:55The UK says Russian intelligence was responsible.

01:58To Putin, the rules are for him to make.

02:01He said as much himself.

02:02I hope no one will cross Russia's red line.

02:07But in each case, we are the ones who will decide where the red line is.

02:11And Russia's right to decide roots back to Putin's view of what he's seen in his lifetime.

02:16In 2015, he addressed the UN and said,

02:19instead of the triumph of democracy and progress,

02:21we've got violence, poverty and social disaster.

02:24Nobody cares a bit about human rights.

02:27Putin's contempt was directed at Western democracy.

02:30We've seen, though, how little he cares for democracy in Russia and Ukraine.

02:35Despite this, years earlier, the West talked of trusting him.

02:40I'll answer the question.

02:41I looked the man in the eye.

02:42I found it to be very straightforward.

02:45I was able to get a sense of his soul.

02:49We're getting a sense of it, too, this week, as we did a few years ago when Putin spoke of his childhood,

02:55telling us, 50 years ago, the Leningrad street taught me a rule.

02:59If a fight is inevitable, you have to throw the first punch.

03:03There was nothing inevitable about this week, but Ukraine has felt that first punch.

03:07A punch Putin justifies in his country's interests, but which very much serve his.

03:12And as we've watched the violence, I think back to that criticism of the West at the UN in 2015.

03:18Putin said,

03:19The world is now asking the same of him.

03:27And everything about Putin's life suggests, yes, he does realise what he's done.

03:31The world is now asking the same thing.

Who is Vladimir Putin - BBC News

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