Vladimir Putin: Four-time President and global influencer

Russian President Vladimir Putin remains a formidable force in world politics. He started as a low-level KGB spy and rose to the upper echelon of power winning the top office of his country a record four times.

Putin, a black belt in judo, relishes his macho image. His swift military interventions in Ukraine, annexing Crimea in 2014, the bombing of rebels in Syria, and allegations of interference in the US elections have stunned many observers.

At 65, Putin has made no secret of his determination to reassert Russian power against US and Nato allies.

Despite the long rule, Putin's approval ratings have remained high his brand of patriotism dominates Russian media, skews coverage in favour of him and puts opposition leaders in jail, and silences dissenters.

In his first two terms as President, Putin was buoyed by oil and gas profits but that has changed the world is now looking at an uncertain future for the oil market.

His third term was marked by more controversies - allegations of absolutism, religious orthodoxy under the powerful church, protesters marginalised including the most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny who was jailed under corruptions charges.

The Church under Putin has supported a ban on groups spreading gay "propaganda" among teenagers.

The Church is back in focus over the Ukraine war and the breaking away of a faction of the Orthodox Church in favour of Ukraine as the seat of religious conservatives.

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International concern about human rights in Russia has grown with the jailing of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once one of the world's richest billionaires, and of anti-Putin activists from the punk group Pussy Riot.

World leaders are conscious ofPutin's rising clout, butUS President Donald Trump admires the Russian President for his style. However, hehas been wary of the headlines around his ties with Russian businesses and Russian interference in US elections in favour of Trump himself.

US prosecutors accuse a longstanding Putin ally oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin of orchestrating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The alleged meddlinghas prompted the US to impose more sanctions on officials close to Putin, a controversy that has surrounded Trump's presidency.

There are also worries of a growing arms race between the US and Russia after Washington publicly discussed quitting a landmark nuclear arms control pact with Russia that has been in place since 1987.

Putin has warned Washington it will be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance if Trump carries through with his threat to quit the INF treaty.

Russia is no longer a strategic partner of the European Union as well. The West accuses Putin of helping the pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine with heavy weapons and troops. The West also accuses him of meddling in Syria in favour of Bashar al-Assad.

Putin's relations with the UK have soured tooover the 2006 radioactive poisoning of anti-Putin campaigner Alexander Litvinenko in London. Agents of the Russian state were accused of murdering him and more recently the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Controversially, he has also backed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a man now being accused of ordering the brutal murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But Putin is also playing peacemaker. He has been part of talks with the Taliban and the Afghan government to initiate a peace process and to bring the Taliban to the talking table.

Significantly, India, China and Russia are also advancing the cause of liberalisation and promotion of free trade as thethree countries held a trilateral meeting recently to take on the US administrations to move towards protectionism and unilateralism.

Putin's rise has been spectacular - from being a spy to four-time President.

Born in 1952 in Leningrad, he studied law and then joined the Russian spy agency, the KGB, after university.

Putin served as a spy in Communist East Germany and in the1990s, became a top aide to Saint Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Later, he entered Boris Yeltsin's Kremlin in 1997, was first made chief of federal security service, andthen theprime minister.

Putin’s moment came in 1999 when Yeltsin quit and named him acting President. Since then, he has won four times.