Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with President Biden via a Dec. 7 videoconference about the tensions over Ukraine. Russia has massed some 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. As Russia’s leader, Putin has sent Russian forces on multiple combat missions, including a 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
Mikhail Metzel/AP
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Mikhail Metzel/AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with President Biden via a Dec. 7 videoconference about the tensions over Ukraine. Russia has massed some 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. As Russia’s leader, Putin has sent Russian forces on multiple combat missions, including a 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
Mikhail Metzel/AP
When Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999, he immediately called on the Russian military.
“This was really his first act, to launch the war in Chechnya,” said Angela Stent, who is director of Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and has met with Putin at an annual conference throughout his presidency.
The Russian troops eventually subdued the rebel fighters in Chechnya, a region inside southern Russia. Over the years, Putin has sent Russian forces on several combat missions abroad, including the former Soviet republics of Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, as well as Syria in 2015.
Putin’s military moves have brought sanctions and ostracization from the West. The Russian economy is weak, and Russia is often described as a “declining power.”