Learn About Mr .putin The President Of Russia

3C h aPt e r on ewh o Is m r . PU tIn ?o n mar Ch 18, 2014, still bathed in the afterglow of the Winter Olympics that he had hosted in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian president Vladimir Putin stepped up to a podium in the Kremlin to address the nation. Before an assembly of Russian officials and parliamentarians, Putin signed the documents officially reuniting the Russian Federation and the peninsular republic of \brimea, the home base of Russias Black Sea Fleet. \brimea had seceded from Ukraine only two days earlier, on March 16. The Russian president gave what was intended to be a his-toric speech. The events were fresh, but his address was laden with refer -ences to several centuries of Russian history. Putin invoked the origins of Orthodox \bhristianity in Russia. He referenced military victories on land and sea that had helped forge the Russian Empire. He noted the grievances that had festered in Russia since the 1990s, when the state was unable to protect its interests after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. At the center of his narrative was \brimea. \brimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia, Putin declared.