He may have brought Russia out of economic ruins in the 90's. yet at the same time he has turned Russia into a de-facto dictatorship. He killed the free press in Russia and what's left of it is being constantly intimidated by Putin and his buddies. Corruption has increased under him and has provoked tensions with neighboring nations, and in the end he blames them for the aftermath. Looks like now Russia is back into economic dismay because of his policies that most Russians back, such as pegging the survival of Russia's economy on oil. His ambitions of turning Russia into a superpower once again may be a pipe dream. Russia suffers from all sorts of issues, such as a collapsing population (Russia loses on average 500000 to 1 million people a year), a rise in support for neo-Nazism (in a nation that lost millions of its own people to the Nazis), a drop in life expectancy, and many more to come. He behaves pretty much like Stalin, or any other Soviet leader, only with non-communist aims. I'd give Putin a 1, but his efforts in combating terrorism push him up a star, even though he continues to aid Iran, which is a major sponsor of state terrorism as we know it.

Returning to the bad old days of Soviet-style rule, from everything I have seen. Not a good thing...

soon to be absolute dictator or Russia

Arrogant nationalist. Just look how he talks during international meetings - like a nazi:
"Everything for Russia" (on the other hand, Russia is not the only country in the world);
"Flatly, we won't let <...>" (about suggestions of Western countries);
"We refuse to <...>" (denial of negative events);
"We won't take <...> recommendations" (because he didn't think about them at all).
He's quite an average leader on internal issues and absolutely awful diplomat.

i think he is a closet case come on you see the pics of him with no shirt showing of his chest he is gay we all no it.

Notwithstanding my initial high hopes for Vladimir Putin (from my admittedly American perspective), I have to say he's been a mixed bag thus far. It appeared (to me at least) that Putin would continue to bring Russia closer to the West and New Europe, but as internal problems lingered, a tougher public stance has been taken to bolster his image at home (i.e. attempting or pretending to push the country back to the same relevance it had during the 20th Century). I can certainly understand that these domestic issues don't lend themselves to Putin moving to Western styled democracy overnight and it's obviously reasonable for any leader to make the state's interests the top priority, but certainly more progress and less aggressive posturing was expected.

Putin is nothing but a de facto dictator. His thugs and assassins murdered Litvinenko and will continue to silence those who speak out against him. I sure hope that the opposition in Russia will be able to defeat the puppet that he endorses for the 2008 presidential election (although it probably won't happen). Nevertheless, long live Garry Kasparov! The greatest chessmaster in history is now becoming the most vocal opponent of Putin. Kasparov for Russian president in 2008!

TWO-Faced, Liar, Cheat, Communism is NOT dead under him!!!

Ahh. . .but remember when dubya could see 'into his soul' and understand his intentions? A foreign-affairs gaffe that the alleged liberal media ignored years ago due to gross stupidity. . .not that we really care about what happens outside of our little bubble. . .

He an average thug doing an average job. The fact that he is looking out for Russia's national interest first irritates many of our leaders on this side of the water.

When you consider that his predecessors included such luminaries as Lenin, Stalin, and Ivan the Terrible, he's positively charming.  Unfortunately, he's creepy, power-hungry and still has thousands of functional nukes.

Ick! Only gets two stars because the Stalinist "Communist" Party, the Nazi "Liberal Democrats", and Rodina are even worse. GO KASPAROV!!! CHECKMATE BIGOTRY, CORRUPTION, AND FASCISM!!!

nuke the chechens, please.

KGB thug who wants to be the next Czar. I don't know what Bush saw in Putin's eyes, but I doubt it was a soul. Russia can do better.

one of the worst in the last 100 years, joins the other stone faced miserable looking Russians statesmen...

Could become the Stalin of this century! Hopefully he won't keep going that way

Vlad the Lad! Love him!

You can take the boy out of the KGB, but you can't take the KGB out of the boy. If anyone believes that Russia needs a kinder, gentler president, they're wrong. At least with ol' Vlad you know what you're getting. He has come to realize that playing footsie with terrorists can get you killed. The world condemns Islamic terrorists yet wants to still call them Chechen rebels. Rebels don't take children hostages and kill them, Islamic terrorists do! If I were forced to tag-team whoopass some terrorists, I think Vlad would be a capable partner.

This man has been faced with so much difficulty and he has handled it about as well as could be expected. If we think we have problems in Afghanistan and Iraq, just imagine if those were breakaway republics still connected to us who could even more easily and efficiently commit terrorist acts against us.

A moron with only out there methods of maintaining order. Psycho.

Wrong methods Imperial politics Covering criminals

Murdering Communist.

I like this wee man heheheh he is cool, he kicks asses at judo anyway :-) I just like him, he looks sweet plus i think he is the best russian prime minister so far

The best Russian leader since Tsar Alexander II. Putin recently accepted the Kyoto protocol, following a compromise deal with the EU. But I'm betting the US won't ratify until Bush (i.e. Cheney) is out of office. Putin did a good job repairing the damage done by Yeltsin, and brought the oligarchs under control. Tried to redirect the Russian economy away from the resource-stripping of the Yeltsin years towards more productive enterprises, with some success. Within the narrow limits of Russian finances, tried to restore the social safety net that was destroyed by the hyper-inflation of the 90s. Admittedly, Putin hasn't been very effective in bringing the war in Chechnya to a close. But Chechnya is a no-win situation for any president: stay in and the carnage will just go on and on, or get out and watch the country become a base for terrorists-who hate the Russians for invading in the first place! The real mistake here was (Yeltsin's) original invasion of Chechnya in 96': a half-baked, disastrous stunt planned to help his re-election. But the stunt backfired, and both Russian and Chechen must kill each other for the rest of century just so Yeltsin could stay in office and his oligarch paymasters could get rich(er). Remind you of anyone else...?

Because he refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the US also refuses, which pretty much leaves the the planet doomed. He's also a hard and callous thug re: Chechen situation and the way he sacrificed his own people in the Moscow theatre siege. A nasty piece of work with shifty eyes.

Homicidal alcoholic thug, just like Yelstin. Expect this pattern to recur for many years to come in Russia. He is a coarse and vulgar man, who has enjoyed waging an unjust and reprehensibly criminal war on the Chechens. Seriously, the war in Chechnya is one continuous war crime with Putin the kingpin.

he should be very happy we not very upset with him,Judas

makes too much Promises but in reality does very little.

He's a former head of the KGB who still maintains diplomatic relationships with North Korea and Iraq. He's proven time and again that he looks out for no one in his country save himself and his wanting to join NATO and the EU smacks of desperation. AMERICA, BAY-BEE!!

Even though Vladimir Putin is internationally regarded as a super-fantastic leader of a deadly troublesome country, most people do no seem to notice, that despite all the "openness-to-the-world" stuff, the true image of the russian president is far from ideal. First of all - he's responsible for the ongoing holocaust that takes place in Chechenya (which is all kept half-secret), which automatically entitles us to call him and his people a bunch of murderers.

He is the best leader in Russia's long history. And he is the one leader in the world that has set it straight with the militant Muslims, by saying candidly that they want to take over the world. Good job.

Jerk. Showed how much he cared for his country's soldiers by staying on vacation even after he heard that a submarine had sunk. He was a former KGB thug! Aren't the Russkies capable of making any competent decisions?

Now you have a guy who becomes boss of one of the most troublesome peoples (apologies for the generalisation) in the world, has to fight an upcoming maffia and has to regain Russian confidence after the end of the cold war. What does he accomplish? He is definitely better than "drunky" Yeltsin, but that does not say a lot. What he has accomplished is that he is doing something about all the afore mentioned issues and lets people know this too!

The incident at the Moscow theater was really disturbing. Really a throwback to the mis information days of Soviet Russia.

Former KGB agent, and murderer of the Chechens.

Best leader Russia has had in a long time.

not such a bad guy. fromer KGB. looks like the new millenium is gonna be a fun one.

He was a former Soviet spy, but hopefully he's changed his tune.

I don't really have an idea of how Mr Putin should deal with Russia's internal problems. It is certainly a very difficult matter nowadays. I just hope these problems can be assessed quickly because the world needs Russia's weight in the geopolitical balance. There is however one point where I can say for sure that I fully agree with Putin, and fully support him: his opposition to USA's "antimissile shield project". Basically, there are more than enough weapons on earth. USA has already everything it needs to insure its own safety. By the way, there are no "Rogue State". There are only different countries with different interests, and one supremely arrogant country who entitles every single State disagreeing with its own views, with the adjective "Rogue". Suppose such a "Rogue" state eventually develop a kind of atomic weapon. All state on earth knows that if they ever dare to drop a single bomb on US territory, they run the risk of simply being rubbed out from the world's map. Being Rogue doesn't mean being Stupid. Nobody would do that (except maybe major states like Russia) and America is basically SAFE against so called Rogue States. US's true goal behind that hypocrit "rogue state" argument is certainly different. Why don't they say frankly what they want? If US develops an antimissile shield, it means that to hit US ground once you need to send 10 missiles. Therefore the strategic equilibrium is broken, and countries like Russia and China are not safe anymore against a potential US attack. To protect themselves, they would have to build more and more weapons, and they already announced they would do so if US goes on unilaterally in their greed for weapons. The world DOESNT need this. The world rather needs LESS weapons. Our children and grand children will never thank us to build this kind of world for them. The best planet should have ZERO nuclear weapon. This project is going AGAINST humanity's interest, against history, against life. Apart from any political ideology, Mr Putin and Mr Zemin, thank you for opposing yourselves to this nonsense, and for this I rank you with four stars.

I gave him this high rating because he is attempting to take back Russia from the mafia, which dominated it before. His brand of democracy is the best for Russia, under Putin, the Russian economy has grown about 3% this year. Give him a chance and you will see that Russia's economy will continue to improve.

War mongers suck!

Got to be better than Yeltsin. He should bring so sense to how Russia treats with the world and hopefully can crack down on organised crime.

He is certainly not a pacifist! :-( I share his hope that Chetznya also in the future will be a part of Russia, but I don't share his militarism.