Win the election, control the economy, continue to wage war.

These are the premises for Vladimir Putin's first term as Russian president.

Win the election because he is initially only in office on a provisional basis.

Boris Yeltsin resigned before the elections and handed over state power to his successor on New Year's Eve 1999.

Control the economy because Yeltsin gave the oligarchs the reins of Russian state-owned companies and these “businessmen” are now far too confident in getting involved in politics.

And continue to wage war because he particularly wants to conclude the Chechnya campaign victoriously so that Russia does not lose any further land and influence in the post-Soviet space.

Sound familiar?

It is.

Because what happened back then in 2000 is the blueprint for how Vladimir Putin still does politics today.

operates the economy.

And wages war.

»This is also why Russia is waging war against Ukraine today to secure its ports on the Black and Caspian Seas.

To keep these two seas as strategic foreland.

That played a big role back then,” explains Russia expert Christian Neef in the podcast.

»This fight against Chechnya back then and the fight against Ukraine today is not about denazification.

It's about such geostrategic problems if you don't solve them.

From the Russian point of view, otherwise one cannot return to the old role of the great power.

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On the occasion of the Russian presidential elections in 2024, the four-part podcast series tells of Vladimir Putin's rise to power from 1999 to 2014. From the largely unknown politician to the man who brought the war back to Europe

Putin's first term in office, starting in 2000, was also the time when the West painted a false picture of Russia.

Because the uncertain 1990s seemed to be over.

Because the Russian economy recovered.

And Russia established itself as a reliable supplier of sought-after fuels.

Also because the new president initially knew how to impress Western statesmen - not just the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (and the entire parliament) during his speech in the Bundestag.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the first Western head of state to receive Putin.

In his memoirs, Blair later wrote in awe about the unusual deference at the reception in Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg: "Putin is like a tsar in Russia." And the newly elected US President George W. Bush said after his first meeting with the Russian president: "I could feel his soul: This is a man who feels deeply committed to his country."

The charm offensive is real.

But only one facet of what Putin plans to do with Russia and the world.

»He wanted to go down in history as one of those who managed to bring about Russia's breakthrough to the West.

That’s important to him,” says Christian Neef.

»But it has nothing to do with the fact that he wants to give up his great power plans.

So we obviously misunderstood this from the start, but the signals he sends are all signals that we like.

How did Vladimir Putin manage to control the media, the Russian party landscape and the oligarchs?

What role did the legendary “Shashlik Party” play in this?

Why was NATO's eastward expansion not a problem for Putin and why does the West still share in his dream of Russia as a new great power?

This is what Christian Neef tells us in the second episode of the special series of the SPIEGEL foreign podcast Eight Billion.

You can listen to the second episode of the podcast series “Putin’s Rise” right here:

The foreign podcast Eight Billion appears every Friday on SPIEGEL.de and everywhere there are podcasts.

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