A look back at 20 years of Putin's rule in Russia

During an economic crisis in 1999, Boris Yeltsin named little-known security chief Vladimir Putin as his fifth acting prime minister and in less than a year he said he wanted Putin to succeed him as president. 

In the following weeks, apartment bombings across Russia killed more than 300 people which Putin blamed on Chechen terrorists. 

His popularity was boosted by his tough response which included the aerial bombing of parts of Chechnya and an assault to recapture the breakaway southern province. 

Some Kremlin critics questioned if Chechen terrorists were really to blame for the apartment bombings.

August 12, 2000 - The Kursk nuclear-powered submarine sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea killing all 118 crew after an explosion on board. 

Putin’s image suffers a jolt after he comments on the crisis only after four days.
 

In 2002, Chechen militants took more than 800 people hostage at a Moscow theatre. 

Special forces ended the siege but used poison gas in the process which killed many hostages. 

Oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested and charged with fraud in 2003. He was later found guilty and jailed in a case his supporters said was punishment for his meddling in politics. 

He was only released in 2013 after Putin pardoned him. 

March 2004 - Putin wins the second term as president with more than 70 per cent of the vote after oil prices fuel a consumer boom and raise living standards, a trend that continues for another four years. 

September 2004 - Islamist fighters seize more than 1,000 people in a school in Beslan, southern Russia, triggering a three-day siege that ends in gunfire. 

A total of 334 hostages are killed. 

Over half of them are children. Some parents say the authorities botched the handling of the siege and blame Putin. 

December 2004 - Putin scraps direct elections for regional governors making them, in effect, Kremlin appointees. 

Putin says the move is needed to keep Russia together. 

Putin had described the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the twentieth century.

In 2006, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of rights abuses in Chechnya was found murdered in Moscow on Putin's birthday. 

Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died in London that same year after being poisoned with a radioactive substance. 

A British inquiry years later concluded he was killed by Russian spies.

During a speech in Munich in 2007, Putin lashed out at the United States, accusing Washington of the "almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations."

Constitutional limits on him serving more than two consecutive presidential terms saw Putin becoming prime minister after his ally, Dmitry Medvedev became president in 2008

In 2008, Russia fought and won a short war with Georgia as it lost two breakaway regions that are garrisoned with Russian troops. 

Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, winning re-election with over 60 per cent of the vote after a decision to extend presidential terms to six from four years. 

Large scale anti-Putin protests took place before and after the vote with critics alleging voter fraud. 

February 7-23, 2014 - Russia hosts the Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

February 27, 2014 - Russian troops start annexing Ukraine's Crimea region after Ukrainian protesters oust the country's Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovich. 

Russia incorporates Crimea the following month after a referendum condemned by the West. The United States and EU go on to impose sanctions on Moscow. 

April 2014 - A pro-Russian separatist uprising breaks out in eastern Ukraine which results in a conflict, still ongoing, which hands the separatists control of a vast swath of territory and leaves over 13,000 people dead. 

Western countries accuse Russia of backing the uprising; Moscow denies direct involvement. 

September 30, 2015 - Russia launches airstrikes in Syria in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, turning the tide of the conflict in President Bashar al-Assad's favour.

November 2016 - Donald Trump is elected president of the United States after promising to improve battered ties with Moscow. 

The US authorities determine Russia tried to interfere in the election in his favour, however, casting a pall over US-Russia ties despite Russian denials. 

March 4, 2018 - A former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter are poisoned in England with a nerve agent. 

They survive but a woman who lives nearby dies after her partner brings home the poison found in a discarded perfume bottle. Britain accuses Moscow, which denies involvement. 

March 19, 2018 - Putin wins a landslide re-election victory and the mandate to stay in office until 2024. 

June/July 2018 - Russia hosts the men`s soccer FIFA World Cup. 

2019 - Protests break out in Moscow over a municipal election which the anti-Kremlin opposition says is unfair. Putin has yet to comment on the demonstrations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed a new government, less than a week after he announced constitutional reforms which led the previous government to step down.

Longtime prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, resigned due to Putin's reforms

Mikhail Mishustin, became the new prime minister following the move.