Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) on October 7, 1952. His father Vladimir Putin (1911-1999) had been a submariner before World War II.
Kanal24 reports that in 1941 he was drafted into the Red Army. First, he served in a mobile internal security battalion of the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs - the then equivalent of the Interior Ministry), and then in the 330th infantry regiment of the Red Army’s 86th division. Suffered a serious injury in November 1941. After the war worked as a foreman at the Yegorov Industrial Plant in Leningrad. Mother, Maria Shelomova (1911-1998), a general worker, survived the Nazi siege of Leningrad.
In 1975, Putin graduated from the Department of Law (International Law Branch) of the Leningrad State University. Underwent a retraining course of KGB operatives in Leningrad (1976) and in Moscow (1979) at the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB of the USSR. In 1985, graduated from the Andropov Institute of the KGB of the USSR (currently the Academy of the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR).
In the March 4, 2012 election Putin was elected president by a 63.6% majority vote in the first round. Communist Gennady Zyuganov was second with 17.18%. Putin took office on May 7, 2012. Starting from 2012 the presidential term of office was extended to six years under an amendment to the Constitution introduced on December 30, 2008.
Since June 12, 2013 Putin has been the leader of the non-governmental movement All-Russia People’s Front.
Commander-in-chief of Russia’s Armed Forces and chairman of the State Council, Security Council, Military-Industrial Commission and other advisory bodies under the presidential office.
Chairman of the board of trustees of the Russian Geographic Society (since 2010) and the Lomonosov Moscow State University (since 2013).
Income declared in 2016 - 8.858 million rubles ($152,000).
Military rank - Colonel, retired.
Holder of nearly 20 Russian and foreign decorations and awards.
Honorary doctor of a number of Russian and foreign academies and universities.
In 2007, Time magazine named Putin Person of the Year.
In 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 Putin featured on top of the Forbes list of most powerful persons.
In 1999, in cooperation with Vasily Shestakov and Aleksey Levitsky co-authored a book titled Learning Judo with Vladimir Putin.
Command of foreign languages - German and English.
Divorced. In 1983-2014 was married to Lyudmila Putina (b. 1958, maiden name Shkrebneva, university degree in philology, Romance languages).
Daughters: Maria (born in 1985) and Katerina (born in 1986). Both graduated from the St. Petersburg State University.
Hobbies: Alpine skiing, ice hockey, fishing.
Holder of the master of sports title in judo and sambo wrestling. Champion of Leningrad in sambo (1973) and judo (1975). In 2006, was nominated honorary president of the European Judo Union. In 2010, was awarded honorary certificate of Doctor in Judo of South Korea’s Yongin university.
Black belt in karate. In November 2014 the international organization Kyokushin-kan karate-do awarded to Putin eighth Kyokushin-kan dan.
In 2013, obtained honorary ninth dan in Korea’s martial art taekwondo.
In 2017, the US cable TV channel Showtime aired Oliver Stone’s documentary The Putin Interview, based on more than two dozen rendezvous with the Russian president filmed over a period of two years.
