Name: Vladimir Putin


Occupation: Acting president and prime minister.


Born: Oct. 7, 1952, in St. Petersburg.


Family status: Married. Has two daughters. Lives in Moscow.


With a pledge to hunt down Chechen separatists even in their outhouses and mochit', or "waste," them, acting President Putin opened the latest war in Chechnya. His decisive conduct of that war has been impressive, and as March 26 approaches the only question seems to be whether Putin will emerge from the field of 12 candidates to win outright, by getting more than 50 percent of the vote, or whether he will win in a run-off campaign about a month later.


As president, Putin has promised to build a thriving economy and "a dictatorship of law, as the only possible type of dictatorship in Russia." Themes of "order" and patriotism" run through his public remarks.


In the 1970s and 1980s, worked for the KGB. From 1985 to 1990, he was detailed to the KGB's foreign intelligence arm in East Germany.


In 1990, he was an aide first to the dean of Leningrad State University, and then to Anatoly Sobchak, the chairman of the Leningrad City Soviet.


From 1991 to 1994, was a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. From 1994 to 1996, he was first deputy mayor.


In August 1996, moved to Moscow and took up a post as deputy head of the Kremlin's household affairs directorate.


In March 1997, became head of the Kremlin's general control department and a deputy Kremlin chief of staff.


In July 1998, he was appointed head of the main KGB successor agency, the Federal Security Service. In March 1999 his duties were expanded to include running the Kremlin Security Council.


In August 1999 nominated by Boris Yeltsin as prime minister and pronounced by Yeltsin as his "successor." Since Dec. 31, 1999, he has been acting president.


Why He's Running: When Boris Yeltsin announced he expected Putin to run for president, Putin replied that he would do so because he was an officer and used to taking orders. Since he has said, among other things, "I made a decision inside myself that even though my career would probably end with it, my mission, my historic mission - it seems highblown, but it's true - would be to sort out the situation in the North Caucasus."


Best scandal: In 1992 deputy mayor Putin asked for and received permission to export $122 million worth of all manner of things - lumber, rare metals, oil and so on. The idea was to sell things abroad, buy food with the proceeds and ship it back to St. Petersburg. What exactly happened in the end is not clear, but it is clear that the things-for-food barter did not work. Putin blamed bureaucrats guarding the national borders; St. Petersburg legislators blamed Putin, officially declaring they believed him to be on the take and recommending he be sacked. Mayor Anatoly Sobchak ignored their recommendation.


Education:Graduated from Leningrad State University in 1975 with a law degree.


Related files: See our report on his St. Petersburg days at: www.moscowtimes.ru/archive/issues/2000/Mar/04/story39.html


See an in-depth official interview with Putin published as a book, "In the First Person," at www.vagrius.com


See Putin's official biography (in Russian) at www.putin2000.ru/01