Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Rusia: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; lahir pada tanggal 7 Oktober 1952) adalah politikus berkebangsaan Rusia yang menjabat sebagai Presiden Rusia sejak tanggal 7 Mei 2012. Sebelumnya, Putin pernah menjadi Presiden Rusia periode 2000–2008 serta Perdana Menteri Rusia periode 1999–2000 dan 2008–2012. Selain itu, ia juga pernah menjabat sebagai Ketua Partai Rusia Bersatu. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin lahir pada tanggal 7 Oktober 1952 di St Petersburg yang pada saat itu dikenal dengan nama Leningrad. Dia sebagai anak tunggal karena kedua saudaranya meninggal ketika masih kecil, yang pertama ketika lahir yang kedua karena dipteri. Sekalipun mengakui pemerintahan Komunis, Putin dibaptis berdasarkan kepercayaan Gereja Ortodoks. Ketika masa muda, sering dipanggil Putka. Ayahnya, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, adalah karyawan lepas dari sebuah pabrik dan meninggal pada bulan Agustus 1999. Ibunya Maria Ivanovna Putina, meninggal 6 bulan lebih awal. Putin memiliki kemampuan yang cukup baik dalam berbahasa Inggris dan bahasa Jerman serta memiliki keterampilan dalam bela diri khususnya sambo (bela diri ala Rusia) dan judo, bukan perokok dan bukan pemabuk berat. Vladimir Putin menikahi Lyudmila pada tahun 1978, dan memiliki dua anak: Katya (lahir 1985) dan Masha (lahir 1986). Keduanya lahir di Dresden, Jerman dan saat ini bersekolah di sekolah internasional di Moskwa. Dia memiliki binatang peliharaan berupa seekor anjing pudel yang dipanggil Tosca. Lyudmila sendiri seorang lulusan sarjana bidang filologi pada Universitas Negeri Leningrad. Setelah lulus dia bekerja sebagai pramugari di Kaliningrad dan sekarang sebagai pengajar. Dia memiliki keterampilan dalam berbahasa Inggris, Jerman dan Spanyol.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; IPA: [vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪr vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈputʲɪn], born 7 October 1952) has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During his last term as Prime Minister, he was also the Chairman of United Russia, the ruling party. For 16 years Putin was an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was reelected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008.
Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. He won the election in March 2012 and is serving a six-year term. Many of Putin's actions are regarded by the domestic opposition and foreign observers as undemocratic. The 2011 Democracy Index stated that Russia was in "a long process of regression [that] culminated in a move from a hybrid to an authoritarian regime" in view of Putin's candidacy and flawed parliamentary elections. In 2014, Russia was excluded from the G8 group as a result of its annexation of Crimea.
