The world we live in is at war. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is the one who is fighting it. For a long time, Putin kept the world wondering about whether or not there would be a war. Then he decided to shock the world by invading Ukraine one morning. “If you interfere from the outside, you will face consequences larger than any you have experienced in history,” he said, daring the world to stop him. He dispatched troops to Georgia in 2008 and annexed Crimea in 2014. Vladimir Putin has initiated a multi-frontal attack against Ukraine in the year 2022.
People are referring to him as the “new Hitler,” a Nazi dictator who wanted to unite Greater Germany, so he dispatched Nazi forces to the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. There were many German-speaking communities there, just as there are many Russian-speaking ones in Donbass. Putin, like Hitler, wants to unite his nation, thus he has dispatched tanks and troops to Ukraine.
Putin’s autocratic tendencies, according to experts, were inherited from a prior employer. Putin used to be the deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg, and his employer was Anatoly Sobchak, the city’s mayor. Putin admired him and is supposed to have picked up on his characteristics unconsciously. Today, Putin’s tyranny is on display; Ukraine claims that comparisons between Putin and Hitler are no longer a joke. They are the reality in Ukraine. If we want to comprehend the conflict in Ukraine, we must first comprehend Vladimir Putin, the man in charge of the conflict.
While most children choose simple sports as a child, Putin chose to learn Sambo, a martial art. While most schoolboys aspired to be doctors or pilots, Putin aspired to be a spy. In 1975, he graduated from Leningrad State University and immediately joined the KGB, the Soviet Union’s secret organization. Putin was a teenager at the time, and he was stationed in East Germany, where he honed his deception skills.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Putin’s life has changed dramatically. Putin was appointed deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg in 1991. He was named deputy chief of the presidential staff in 1997. He was the head of the FSB, the Russian intelligence organization that succeeded the KGB, in 1998. He rose through the ranks of Russia’s government to become one of the country’s first deputy prime ministers, then prime minister, and eventually president in 2000.
Putin’s career took off while Russia’s image sank. Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, was a crook, a drunkard, and a laughingstock. Putin disliked Yeltsin because he was too close to the West. While the Cold War was gone, the legacy of the conflict lingered, and Putin, a former Soviet spy, could never trust the West. He couldn’t ignore the reality that NATO was expanding and that many new countries were joining. Putin feared that NATO will expand to encompass ex-Soviet states and eventually surround Russia as early as 1999.
He was angry that Yeltsin was not doing more to keep NATO at bay. Putin envisioned a Russian state that was independent, powerful, and feared. Chechnya provided him with the opportunity to create his ideal state. Chechen insurgents had become a nuisance after the territory had broken away from Russia. A series of explosions struck Russia in 1999, killing over 300 people in numerous Russian cities. On live television, Prime Minister Putin began naming, condemning, and denouncing Chechens, vowing to avenge the blasts. His approval ratings quickly climbed from 2% before the bombings to 45 percent afterward.
Then came reports that Putin may have staged the attacks, with KGB agents planting them to boost Putin’s popularity. Russia refuted this theory by declaring war on Chechnya. Chechnya was returned to Russia after at least 80,000 people were killed. Instead of gloating, Yeltsin abruptly resigned on December 31, 1999, and Putin was named acting president.
Putin was married to a former flight attendant at the time, and she had no idea her husband would become Russia’s president. Putin had known about it for days but had kept it a secret from his wife. Vladimir Putin is notorious for his secrecy. According to reports, the Russian parliament was also unaware of his preparations to invade Ukraine. Yes, Putin requested permission to send soldiers to another country, but lawmakers never imagined he would attack Ukraine. Putin didn’t even require that approval. He is the Russian military’s commander in chief, and he has the authority to send soldiers wherever he wants. As a result, traveling to the parliament was a gimmick, and Putin enjoys them. He’s been seen fishing and arm wrestling.
Putin is gifted, tough, and a master manipulator of facts as well as a storyteller in his own right. Like his version of Ukraine, in which Russia and the people of Donbass are victims while a democratically elected government in Kyiv is rife with Nazis. As a result, Putin has decided to dispatch troops on a de-Nazi mission. Why have buildings been demolished and innocent civilians killed? Putin considers Ukraine and Russia to be one entity, and he will not allow anything to come between him and his homeland.
If you want to understand the present conflict in Ukraine, read it from Putin’s perspective. He is a working-class youngster who rose through the ranks of the Kremlin to become Moscow’s face. He’s been in power for 22 years and will remain in power for another 14 years. Try seeing things through Putin’s eyes if you want to know what will happen next.
