On October 7, 1952, Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad, which is now St. Petersburg, Russia to parents Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Shelomova.
He graduated with a law degree from Leningrad State University in 1975. Speaking German and English with ease, he also had a notable career as an intelligence officer for the KGB.
In 2007, he was named as Time magazine's "Person of the Year."
Putin holds a black belt in judo and is a fan of the Beatles.
Appointed by the then-president Boris Yeltsin, he took office as acting president on December 31, 1999, and took office as president officially in 2000.