Putin’s 20-year reign --------------------------- Approval rating of Vladimir Putin and Russian government --------------------------- 53% Aug 1999: Ex-KGB chief appointed acting prime minister by President Boris Yeltsin --------------------------- 79% Dec 1999: Yeltsin resigns, names Putin acting president --------------------------- 80% Mar 2000: Putin wins presidential election --------------------------- Aug: Kursk disaster. Nuclear submarine sinks in Barents Sea killing all 118 crew --------------------------- Oct 2002: Moscow theatre siege – 200 hostages killed --------------------------- 72% Sep 2004: Beslan school siege – 330 hostages killed, including 186 children --------------------------- 77% Oct 2006: Journalist Anna Politkovskaya (above) murdered on Putin’s birthday --------------------------- Jul 2008: Russian oil peaks at $147 per barrel --------------------------- 83% Aug: Russia fights and wins five-day war with Georgia over “breakaway provinces” Abkhazia and South Ossetia --------------------------- 88% 2008-09: Financial crisis. Oil price plummets, GDP shrinks by 8% --------------------------- 63% Dec 2011: Anti-government protests --------------------------- 69% May 2012: Putin sworn in as president as riot police battle protesters --------------------------- 69% Feb 2014: Annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region creates so-called Crimean Consensus – massive wave of public support for Kremlin’s confrontational stance towards West --------------------------- Jul 2014: All 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 are killed when passenger jet is hit by Russian-made missile over Ukraine. Flight is en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur --------------------------- 88% Sep 2015: Russia launches war in Syria --------------------------- 2016: Rouble collapses – down 50% since 2014 --------------------------- Mar 2018: Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with nerve agent in UK --------------------------- 64% Jan 2019: Approval drops after years of falling real incomes, rise in pension age and increase in VAT. Jul: Protests break out in Moscow --------------------------- 59% May 2020: Putin’s handling of coronavirus pandemic heavily criticised --------------------------- Jul 1: Referendum on constitutional changes to allow Putin to stay in office until 2036 --------------------------- 100% 84% 61% 35% 86% 26% 66% 76% 64% 50% 61% 39% 59% 33% 2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 PM PRESIDENT 2000-2008 PRIME MINISTER PRESIDENT 2012-2024 PUTIN GOVERNMENT 0 20 40 60 80 Putin launches war in Chechnya “Crimean Consensus” --------------------------- Sources: Levada, Reuters, Financial Times, CNN Pictures: Associated Press, Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS