Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg.

citation

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, February 12). Vladimir Putin. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 12, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vladimir_Putin&oldid=1206393268

Vladimir Putin (Wikipedia) Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has been President of Russia since 2012. Putin has held continuous positions as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008. He is the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union (Wikipedia) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was dissolved on 26 December 1991 by Declaration № 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, formally establishing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a sovereign state and subject of international law. It also brought an end to the Soviet Union’s federal government and General Secretary (also President) Mikhail Gorbachev’s effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide.