Putin in power after 25 years: Trump is back

Putin in power after 25 years: Trump is back

On December 31, 1999, Russian President Boris Jelzin stepped in front of the camera and surprisingly announced that he would step down and make his prime minister the new president. "Why hold on to power when the country has a strong leader who can become the president, a man whom almost all Russians put their hopes for the future?" So jelzin who has been recognized by the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Why stand in the way?”

The rise of Putin: An era of power and influence

The strong leader, of whom Yeltsin spoke, was a political unknown: a former KGB officer named Vladimir Putin. On this New Year's Eve, Putin, who was the first man of Russia 25 years ago as a president and in a Four-year-old interregnum look back his first office.

Putin's stable handle on the power

With the approaching end of 2024, Putin's grip on the power seems more stable than ever. In the war zone in Ukraine, the Russian armed forces made progress as part of a tough war of wear and in Donbass on soil. At home, the political landscape of Russia after the death of the most prominent opposition leader, alexey " Navalny , no space for competition.

uncertainty on the horizon: Trump's choice and her consequences

A month after Navalny's death in a remote prison north of the Arctic Circle, the Kremlführer won the re -election in a competition that a overwhelming mandate , even if fairness was not up for debate.

Despite Putin's self -confidence, new uncertainty lurks. The elected US President Donald Trump had promised to end Russia's war against Ukraine. His plan for a negotiated end of the conflict is not very concrete, but one thing is clear: he wants it to happen quickly.

Trump and Putin: A relationship full of paradoxes

"This is one of the things I want to do quickly - and President Putin said that he wants to meet me as soon as possible," said Trump at a recent event in Arizona. "So we have to wait. But we have to end this war."

It is understandable that in Moscow according to Trumps re-election Putin put everything on the war in Ukraine: he has the country's economy on a warkurs set, tight alliances with to keep running, and on the list of set in the struts, the lifeliness of the To dismantle Ukraine as a state.

Of course, Trump and Putin have some Common interests . The 2018 Helsinki summit showed that Trump was ready to ignore the long-established norms in foreign policy, as well as Putin. Trumps admiration for Putin's authoritarian trends in the US own policy. But Trump's moody approach to foreign policy could force the Kremlin to prepare for unpredictable negotiations.

Putin also remains in the economy with optimistic statements, even if the ordinary Russians Food prices and a falling ruble suffer. But how long can this glossy rhetoric be maintained? Alexandra Prokopenko, a researcher at the Carnegie Russia-Eurasien-Zentrum in Berlin, recently noticed that Russia's overstimulated war economy may have a crisis point is close.

“The pressure increases every month," she wrote. "The Kremlin approaches a turning point where the social contract between the state and the people is inevitably shifted. The Russians are increasingly expected to accept increasing inequality and a decline in quality of life in exchange for short -term stability and symbolic pride for the idea of ​​a 'fortress nation'."

outlook: Putin's 25 years in power and the challenges of the future

Putin came to power 25 years ago with the promise of strong rule, after a decade of collective trauma during the Yeltsin era. Now he and his country have to face Trump in a new time of difficulties.