Strongman, The

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    Ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. (Photo by Natasja Weitsz/Getty Images)

 

    Putin’s placeman in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. (Photo by Ruslan Alkhanov/AFP/Getty Images)

 

    All smiles at Putin’s first meeting in 2004 with the Western-oriented Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili. Saakashvili later mocked the Russian as ‘Liliputin’. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, leaders of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. (Courtesy of European Peoples Party)

 

    Putin’s patriots. The Russian leader holds regular meetings with his young supporters in Nashi. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin’s portraits for sale in a stationery store. (Vladimir Menkov)

 

    Putin as a child dreamt of joining the KGB. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    After university he fulfilled his dream. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin with his wife Lyudmila on a rare public appearance together. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin’s appearances with his dog Koni are more frequent. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin the judoist. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin discovers two Grecian urns in the Black Sea in the summer of 2011. His spokesman later admitted they were planted for him. (Courtesy of RIA Novosti)

 

    Doing the butterfly stroke in an icy Siberian river. (Courtesy of RIA Novosti)

 

    Putin at the controls of a jetplane. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Putin and Dmitry Medvedev celebrate the latter’s election as president in May 2008. The crowd on Red Square chanted only Putin’s name. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    During the 2009 financial crisis, Putin forces billionaire Oleg Deripaska to sign a paper promising to get the one-factory town of Pikalyovo working again. (Courtesy of RIA Novosti)

 

    July 2009: President Barack Obama explains his plans for a US–Russian ‘reset’ at Putin’s dacha. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    June 2010: President Medvedev heads off with Barack Obama for a hamburger lunch. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton press a toy ‘reset button’. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    The modernising Medvedev is rarely seen without his iPad. (Courtesy of RIA Novosti)

 

    Dmitry Medvedev became president in 2008 knowing he would probably hand back to Putin four years later. (www.kremlin.ru)

 

    In September they told a congress of the United Russia party that they had agreed to swap roles, allowing Putin to regain the presidency for as much as 12 more years. (www.kremlin.ru)