'''Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin''' (''Russian'': Владимир Владимирович Путин) is the current President of the [[Russian Federation]]. He succeeded [[Boris Yeltsin]] in 2000 through a democratic election getting a significant majority of the votes. He is mainly backed by the '[[United Russia]]' party which holds a majority in the Russian parliament, known as the ''Duma''. The Party usually reflects the political views of Putin, which are that of moderate conservatism and nationalism. The next major political party in Russia is the '[[Communist Party]]' (which Putin is antagonistic towards) which still holds influence but the '[[Bolshevik]]' Party (being the old Communist Party) is banned.
Putin is seen generally as an antagonist in the West; his presidency has become increasingly authoritarian and it is uncertain whether he will stand down when his term runs out for the last time in 2008. Putin has been described as a [[dictator]] by many critics. For example, on April 14, 2007, Russian riot police beat a number of protesters and journalists at an anti-Putin rally at Puskin Square in Moscow. <ref name="economist">''The Economist'', April 21, 2007</ref> Despite these political trends, Putin remains popular in Russia<ref>http://www.levada.ru/prezident.html Putin's Approval Ratings</ref>. Since coming to power, Putin has grown Russia's economy and brought inflation down there. <ref>''Time Magazine'', February 26, 2007</ref> The majority of Russians are relatively uninterested in politics outside of issues affecting their personal prosperity. <ref name="economist">''The Economist'', April 21, 2007</ref> and journalist Anna Politkovskaya has argued that the Russian people, as a whole, have been willing to tolerate violence in the name of "comfort and peace and quiet". <ref>Politkovskaya, Anna. Putin's Russia. London: Harvill Press, 2004</ref> (Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of Putin, was assassinated in 2006 <ref>http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1819666.ece</ref>, and it is widely believed that the Russian government had some involvement in this death.)
Prior to entering politics, Putin was a [[KGB]] officer during the later years of the [[USSR]].