Russia putin profile

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a judo black belt, appears to symbolise two of the martial art’s key qualities – guile and aggression. Mr Putin, 65, has made no secret of his determination to reassert Russian power after years of russia putin profile humiliation by the US and its Nato allies.

US prosecutors accuse a longstanding Putin ally – oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin – of orchestrating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to favour Donald Trump. The alleged meddling – mainly on social media – prompted the US to impose more sanctions on officials close to Mr Putin. Since March 2014 the EU and US have expanded sanctions on key Russian officials and firms over Russia’s military role in Ukraine. The sanctions blocked Western travel and financial services for many of Mr Putin’s aides. President Trump has expressed admiration for Mr Putin and said he wants to improve ties with Russia. And Russia is no longer a “strategic partner” of the EU.

The West accuses Mr Putin of helping the pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine with heavy weapons and troops. He admits only that Russian “volunteers” have gone there to help the rebels. Mr Putin fumes over what he calls the “coup” which forced Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych to flee to Russia in February 2014. Before that crisis he called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the Century”. He bitterly resents Nato’s expansion up to Russia’s borders. That drove him to take up judo.