Hello again!
Sorry I haven’t been posting much this month. It has been
hectic! So much work and so many activities! But, I must say, so much fun!
February has really been pretty good. I am, though, really ready to be home for
a week over spring break. Spring break won’t be necessarily relaxing, but it
will be fun and great to see my mom again. I feel like I haven’t talked to her
in forever. With the craziness that has been the weather this month, she’s been
ridiculously busy or I haven’t been in a place that I can talk, i.e. the
library… I’ve quite literally have been living in the library the past few
weeks.
Well anyway, one thing that I’ve been doing a lot of recently
has been watching the Sochi Olympics. I absolutely love the Olympics, both
summer and winter. I might like the winter ones better than summer though. I
just love winter much more than summer, including the sports in the winter
versus the sports in the summer. Well, one thing that has come along with the
winter Olympics in Russia has come news about Vladimir Putin… and this weeks
post will be on the one and only Putin…
Putin was born in October of 1952 in Leningrad, USSR. His
grandfather was the cool for Lenin, then Lenin’s wife, and later Stalin. His
father was a member of multiple communist party committees. Putin’s family had
deep connections with the communist government in the USSR.
In 1975, Putin graduated from Leningrad State University
with a degree in International Law. While getting his education, he joined the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and maintained membership until 1991 with
the fall of the iron curtain.
After school, Putin joined the KGB, where he was given the
job of monitoring foreigners in Dresden, East Germany. When he returned to
Russia, he was given the position of surveillance maintenance on students and
recruiter at Leningrad State University. He resigned from his position and from
the KGB because he did not support the 1991 coup d’état attempt that the hard
communist party supporters led with the support of the KGB.
After the fall of the iron curtain, Putin was given a
position in Boris Yeltsin’s Presidential Staff. In 1998, he was appointed as
head of the FSB and later became a member of the Security Council of the
Russian Federation permanently. In August 1999, Putin was named Prime Minister
by then-President Boris Yeltsin. Then, in December of the same year, Yeltsin
suddenly resigned and Putin took over the presidency. When the upcoming
Presidential elections came, Putin easily won the election.
During his first term, Putin altered the Chechnya
constitution that declared it as part of Russia.
During his second term, he worked to improve health care,
education, housing, and agriculture. He also continued the crack down on
Russian oligarchs for fraud and tax evasion that he began during his first term.
There were some very negative things that Putin has done as well. He lessened
media freedom and has been suspected as the one to order the murders of several
people, many of which work within the media.
In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev became president because Putin was
limited to two terms as president. Putin became the Prime Minister. During
Medvedev’s presidency the constitution was altered so that someone could not be
president for more than one term in a row, the key being, in a row. This
allowed Putin the run for president again in the 2012 elections, which he won.
Putin is the current President of Russia. This election however was criticized
for not being very transparent and possibly corrupt, which the entire election
process in Russia cannot be considered every democratic to begin with. As a
result, there were many protests and Putin responded violently. One protest in
Moscow resulted in over 500 arrests and over 50 people injured by the police.
One example of Putin’s violence came out in the news when he attacked musical
artists, Pussy Riot.
In 2012 and 2013, Putin supported legislation that restricted
the LGBT community. This legislation prohibited things like the usage of the
rainbow flag. This was an issue as the Sochi Olympics approached.
Well, there is some of Putin’s history. I should go into
more issues that Putin has caused, but I will become too heated and want to
continue to think rationally. I also really have to study for a computer
science quiz that I have tomorrow. The Breakfast
Club is also on in an hour and a half and I want all my work to be done by
then.
Well, I hope this sort of gave you a good idea of Putin’s
background. Let me know in the comments what you think of Vladimir Putin. Here
is a quiz to try: Which Vladimir Putin Are You? Enjoy! And enjoy the rest of
the Olympics! But remember to keep the dogs of Sochi in your hearts as they
face injustice. What events are you still looking forward to see?
Have a great week!
