The first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, will go down in history as the man who spearheaded a coalition of diverse political forces to dismantle the Soviet Union from within and bring down the Soviet ideological and political systems. However, Yeltsin failed to lead post-Soviet Russia towards social stability and economic progress. Instead, one of the most perceptive studies of Yeltsin’s rule points out that he left behind him a society disillusioned with politics and politicians, a greatly weakened national economy, and armed forces in a state of near collapse.2 By the end of the 1990s Russia found itself on the brink of complete national disaster. The country was in desperate need of a new generation of politicians “with a sense of mission, national pride, and the desire to build a new and civilized Russia.”3 In the public mind, Vladimir Putin became identified as just such a politician, even though he entered the national arena only when he was appointed as Russia’s new Prime Minister in August 1999. At that time, he was completely untested as a political leader on any major national issue. In fact, he was barely known outside the rarefied world of intelligence and security services, where he was Director of the National Security Service (FSB). Putin was confirmed in his new position by the Russian parliament without difficulty, but this happened largely because at that time he was considered to be no more than a caretaker of governmental affairs during the period prior to upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. Putin became popular on the national scale in his own right very quickly—a process that can be dated from his address to the Federal Assembly in the middle of September 1999, when he demanded a hard-line approach towards the separatist rebellion in Chechnya. His popularity as a determined leader continued to soar after the Russian army re-entered Chechnya and avenged its humiliating defeat in the 1994–96 campaign. On the eve of 2000, Vladimir Putin became Acting Russian President after Boris Yeltsin stepped down in his favor. Three months later, Putin won the presidential election, receiving almost 53% of the popular vote. Almost two years into the first term of his presidency, he remains