President Vladimir Putin has been the leader of Russia in one capacity or another since 2000, when he was just 48. He has been in place so long that an entire generation of young Russians are coming of age who have never known any other leader. Yet an aging Putin seems aware of his own mortality and is making arrangements to ensure the stability he brought to Russia outlasts him.
In the West, Putin is perceived as a ruthless autocrat whose sole goal is to secure personal power while enriching himself and his allies. The more assertive stance that Russia has taken under his rule both in its immediate periphery and internationally has been viewed as naked aggression, with the end goal of reabsorbing territories lost during the fall of the Soviet Union. There’s some truth in these perceptions—but also some distortion.
