Leadership: Russian President, Vladimir Putin
Choose a current political leader (of a country other than the United States). You will provide background information on your chosen leader, explain how they came to power, describe the source and extent of their power, describe their leadership style (i.e. transactional, transformational), and describe and evaluate at least two decisions they have made since coming to power.
Required Elements
Introduction with a Thesis Statement
Background Information:
Family and early life
Education
Professional background
Influences
Rise to Power:
Why did the leader seek power?
Explain how the leader came to power (election, coup, hereditary, etc.).
Source and Extent of Power:
Source: Constitution or other document(s), tradition, fear, etc.
Extent: Are there limits to what the leader can do? Who, if anyone, can check the leader’s power? Is the leader accountable to anyone?
Leadership Style:
Using your own analysis as well as that of scholars, describe your subject’s leadership style (i.e. transactional, transformational).
Evaluate the overall impact of this leadership style on the leader’s actions and decisions.
Major Actions/Decisions:
Describe at least two major actions or decisions by the leader, including what was done, why, and the outcome.
How do these actions/decisions illustrate your subject’s leadership style?
Your Overall Assessment of the Leader
Summarizing Conclusion
ANSWER
Leadership: Russian President, Vladimir Putin
Leadership: Russian President, Vladimir Putin
Introduction
Vladimir Putin is one of the most popular and unique leaders in the world. The Russian president possesses various unique traits, qualities, and behavioral characteristics that can be compared to those of other unique and popular leaders. Putin is the president of the largest nation on the planet, a country that has many time zones, is the largest energy producer in the world, and has half of the world’s nuclear warheads. Putin is a dominant leader whose actions and decisions communicate power and authority. A country’s stability, success, and economic performance are largely determined by the quality of its leader. Strong and wise leaders can lead their nations to economic stability and success in the long run. Putin’s rise to power came at a time when Russia was quite unstable. His rise to the presidency resulted in various changes in the country, ultimately resulting in economic stability and development (Biography.com Editors, 2020). He was able to strengthen and maintain his power over the country, starting his leadership in 2000 and maintaining power to date while ensuring better and stable economic situations in the country. In this paper, the leadership of Vladimir Putin is analyzed to identify the type of leader that he is, his contributions to Russia’s economy and stability, and the various factors that have contributed to the leader’s general success or failure. Vladimir Putin’s unique leadership style and vision for Russia has enabled the country to become a better performing economy and achieve economic stability over the past decade.
Background Information
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R, which is today known as St. Petersburg, Russia (Biography.com Editors, 2020). He has served as Russia’s prime minister and is the country’s president to date. Vladimir Putin studied law at Leningrad State University. His tutor, Anatoly Sobchak, later became of the leading reforms politicians in the country. Vladimir Putin served as a foreign intelligence officer for fifteen years for the KGB, the Russian committee for state security (Biography.com Editors, 2020). While working for the KGB, Putin worked for six years in Dresden, East Germany, retiring from active service at the rank of lieutenant colonel. Putin returned to Russia and became proctor of Leningrad State University managing the university’s external relations. Putin later became Sobchak’s, St. Petersburg’s first democratically elected mayor, adviser (Biography.com Editors, 2020). As Sobchak’s adviser, he won his confidence and favor, becoming popular for his hard work and getting things done. Putin quickly rose to the first deputy mayor by 1994.
Putin moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined the presidential staff as a deputy to the then Kremlin Chief Administrator, Pavel Borodin (Biography.com Editors, 2020). He moved up the administrative positions as a result of his hard work and closeness to Anatoly Chubais, a fellow Leningrader and key figure in Russian politics and economics. In 1998, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin the director of the FSB (Federal Security Service), the domestic successor of the KGB. Shortly afterward, Putin became the secretary of the Federal Security Council (Biography.com Editors, 2020). At the time, President Yeltsin was looking for a successor to assume his mantle. He would later appoint Putin Prime Minister in 1999. Even though he was unknown when he was appointed, his public-approval ratings soared quickly when he successfully launched an organized military operation against secessionists rebels in Chechnya (Biography.com Editors, 2020). The people were tired of Yeltsin’s erratic and unexpected behavior as a president. They were impressed by Putin’s decisiveness and composure under pressure (Sakwa, 2008). Putin supported a new electoral bloc, Unity, which achieved success in the next parliamentary elections.
Putin’s Rise to Power, Power Source, and Extent of his Power
On the 31st of December 1999, President Yeltsin announced his resignation, out of the blues, and named Putin the acting president of the country. Putin proceeded to win the March 2000 elections with more than fifty percent of the vote, promising Russians that he would rebuild the weakened country (Biography.com Editors, 2020). As president, he focused on eliminating corruption and establishing a strongly regulated market economy. He was quickly able to reassert control over Russia’s 89 republics and regions, dividing them into seven federal districts that were headed by a representative appointed by the president (Biography.com Editors, 2020). As a result of ensuring that the Russian economy enjoyed steady growth after a long recession in the 1990s, Putin was re-elected as the country’s president in March 2004. His party, United Russia, won a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections in 2007. Even though the elections were disputed by international observers and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Docherty, 2015), Putin’s power in Russia was affirmed by the majority win.
As president during his first two terms, Putin’s source of power was the country’s constitution, which could be used to check his actions. As a result, a constitutional provision forced him to step down in 2008, appointing Dmitry Medvedev as his successor. Medvedev nominated Putin as the Prime Minister within hours of assuming the presidency and the parliament confirmed his appointment. Medvedev, in 2011, announced that he would not run for a second term, stating that he would trade positions with Putin if their party won the polls. In March 2012, Putin was elected to a third presidential term while Medvedev assumed chairmanship of United Russia. Putin then appointed him to serve as Russia’s prime minister. With a recent change in the country’s constitution (The Economist, 2020), Putin’s powers have increased since the constitution no longer spells out the length of his term or the extent of his power.
Leadership Style
Vladimir Putin’s leadership effectiveness can be attributed to his ability to choose an appropriate style of leadership depending on the situation at hand. He sought to acquire control over Russia, to lead the country towards economic development, and to fight corruption. Putin has demonstrated his capability to use the autocratic and styles of leadership during different situations. He is a transformational leader who has been able to transform Russia into a stable controlled economy that has minimal corruption. Putin is popular for leading using an autocratic style (Lukin, 2001). His obsessive disorder makes him a control freak, centralizing power, and decision-making. Most of the time, he takes control of issues and is not open to the insights and opinions of other people (Lukin, 2001), including presidents of other countries. He is intimidating, feared, and very influential in Russia and many other regions of the world.
Putin has also demonstrated visionary leadership by inspiring his followers through the communication of a vision, developing confidence and trust to motivate and engage them, and working with them towards the achievement of the vision. He is clear in communication and ensures that all citizens understand what he is saying. He mingles freely with people and sells his vision of a better Russia with everyone. He is a transformation leader who has transformed Russia’s defense military policies, technology, intelligence, international economics, diplomacy, and international law (Sakwa, 2008). He was able to consolidate companies in various industries such as aircraft, military, oil, and banks, enabling Russian economic development. His transformational leadership has resulted in the West not being fond of him and his policies, he has been able to change Russia’s direction and modernize its economy.
Major Decisions and Actions
When Putin became Russia’s president, he decided to eradicate corruption and minimize the power of the country’s financiers and media tycoons (Docherty, 2015). A key action that he ensured was the removal of the right of regional governors to sit in the Federation Council. He also closed several media outlets and launched criminal proceedings against many unpopular figures. The outcome was minimized corruption and the achievement of better control of the country. Putin also made a difficult decision when he faced the Chechnya rebel situation. He declared military campaigns over, but casualties remained high. This decision quickly increased public support of his leadership. His actions demonstrated that he was a transformational leader focused on developing a better country.
Conclusion
Vladimir Putin is a leader that is unlike many other world leaders of today. As president, he understood what his country needed to achieve economic stability and growth. After his election, he was able to take control of the country and organs such as media and press, redirecting them towards pushing his agenda, a vision of a better country. He took command in the eyes of the citizens, realizing that public opinion was important if he was to crush his opposition. Through his visionary and transformational leadership, Putin brought back political and economic stability to Russia, making various tactical decisions that positioned him to remain president in the future. Putin’s transformational leadership style and vision for Russia has enabled the country to become a better performing economy and achieve economic growth and stability.
References
Biography.com Editors. (2020, March 4). Vladimir Putin Bibliography. Biography.com. https://www.biography.com/political-figure/vladimir-putin.
Docherty, N. (2015, January 13). Putin’s Way. PBS Frontline. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/putins-way/.
Lukin, A. (2001). Putin’s Regime: Restoration or Revolution? Problems of Post-Communism, 48(4), 38-48.
Sakwa, R. (2008). Putin’s leadership: Character and consequences. Europe-Asia Studies, 60(6), 879-897.
The Economist. (2020, March 21). Some Russians are resisting Putin’s power grab. https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/03/21/some-russians-are-resisting-putins-power-grab.
