Vladimir Putin
Putin, 65, wants to secure a fourth term as Russia’s president. As a KGB spy during the Soviet era, Putin maintained ties to organized crime, according to Karen Dawisha, author of Putin’s Kleptocracy; Who Owns Russia? As Russia’s president and leader since 2000, he made himself one of the wealthiest men in the world, building an estimated net worth of tens of billions of dollars, according to U.S. intelligence.
Putin, an economist with a judo blackbelt, cultivated a tough-guy image as he rode shirtless on horseback, helped treat a tranquilized tiger and a polar bear and flew in an ultralight with migratory birds. Many of his critics and political opponents have died in mysterious circumstances.
After his first two four-year terms as president, Putin was appointed prime minister in 2008, then returned as president in 2012. The length of the presidential terms were then changed from four years to six.
Putin recently boasted about his new intercontinental ballistic missile and other nuclear weapons under development. Putin’s aggressive policies in Ukraine, Syria and at home have made Russia the target of international sanctions, which hurts the economy. Polls give Putin, an independent, nearly 70% of the vote.