As of 2021, Putin is the president of Russia, a position he has held (with a brief interruption) since 1999. Notably, shortly after his rise to power, Putin exploited a series of military crises—which may have been of his government’s own making—in order to justify consolidating power. Ever since, he has taken an increasingly authoritarian path, often by legally and sometimes violently eliminating his political opposition.
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Vladimir Putin Character Timeline in How Democracies Die
The timeline below shows where the character Vladimir Putin appears in How Democracies Die. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: Subverting Democracy
...Mohamed all got opposition leaders arrested on dubious charges. Rafael Correa, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin, and Chávez all crushed opposition media through fines and lawsuits, leaving them open for government...
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...Nazis’ opposition and rule Germany by decree for more than a decade. Similarly, when Vladimir Putin became Russia’s prime minister in 1999, he used a series of alleged terrorist attacks on...
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Chapter 8: Trump Against the Guardrails
...will be successful. In national security crises, citizens and judges often support authoritarian measures. Fujimori, Putin, and Erdoğan all used crises to their advantage. Pro-democracy leaders like Abraham Lincoln and George...
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