Vladimir Putin has been ruling Russia since 1999. In that time, he has shaped the country into an authoritarian and militaristic society, successfully invading 2 of Russia's neighbouring countries and strengthening ties with Syria and Iran.

Putin is intent on pushing back against the Western world order, and it appears to be working.

In order to understand how 1 man could have such a powerful influence on his country, you must revert back to the chaos and corruption which gripped Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. When the Berlin Wall fell, 40 year old, Vladimir Putin was working as an undercover spy in East Germany for the Soviet security agency, the KGB.

The Soviet Union dissolved into 15 new countries, including the new Russian Federation. In Putin's perspective, Russia had just lost 2 million square miles of territory. He later referred to this as, "the major geopolitical disaster of the century," lamenting that "tens of millions of his compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory."

The new government had to sell nearly 45,000 public businesses such as energy, mining, and communication companies that had been run by the communist regime. The Russian economy was in a freefall, and all of these companies resulted in the hands of a few extremely wealthy individuals, known today as Russia's oligarchs.

At the same time, the new Russian state was experiencing difficulties establishing itself. Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin was wildly unpopular for cooperating with the west. In order to remain in power, Yeltsin leaned on the support of these oligarchs, surrendering an immense amount of political power to them. This graph depicts how inequality worsened after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The image below pinpoints where Vladimir Putin entered politics. He left the KGB in 1991 and became a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. He uses his position to administer special treatment to friends and allies in the private sector, while helping them structure monopolies and regulating their competitors, causing him to quickly become a favourite among the oligarchs.

Before long, he assembled a support network of oligarchs, crime bosses, and security officials, mostly former KGB officers. With their help, he rapidly ascended to the upper echelon of the new Russian state. In 1999, president Boris Yeltsin appoints Vladimir Putin, who is still relatively unknown in national politics, to be the prime minister.

As a fierce nationalist, Putin feared that Yeltsin was allowing the United States to dominate Russia, and that NATO, the alliance that worked for decades to contain Soviet influence, would expand into the new liberated countries and surround Russia. His goal shifted towards building a strong Russian state, one that would be both stable at home, and capable of exercising more influence over its neighbours.

During the post Soviet chaos, there was escalating violence in Chechnya, a region that informally seceded from Russia in the mid 90's. Chechen warlords and terrorists were pushing into Russian territory and attacking the border.

In August, 1999, a series of deadly bombings claimed the lives of more than 300 individuals in several Russian cities, including Moscow. Putin, as new Prime Minister, immediately blamed Chechen separatists for the attack. He regularly appeared in Russian television, with claims that "he will avenge Russia."

The population quickly rallied around him, and Putin's approval ratings rapidly increased from 2% before the bombing, to 45% after the bombings. Journalists later uncovered evidence that suggests Russian security services could have been complicit in the Moscow bombings, knowing that they would spark support for a strong man like Putin.

Russia launched a popular and devastating war in Chechnya. The capital city of Grozny was levelled by Russian bombings, and some estimated that nearly 80 thousand people perished.

In less than 1 year, Russia successfully brought Chechnya back under its control. In December, 1999, Yeltsin suddenly resigned, establishing Putin as the interim president. In May, during the bloody campaign in Chechnya, Putin won the presidential election. He begins to shape the Russian state to his vision. Patronage and corruption remain to be some of his key tools, but he quickly suppresses the oligarchs under his rule.

Those who supported Putin were rewarded, those that didn't were eliminated. And with the oligarchy tamed, he was free to move his vision outside of Russia's borders. At the time, relations with the United States were fairly positive, and Putin even vacationed at George W. Bush's summer home.

In August, 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, a former Soviet republic, as a display of aggression and strength on behalf of pro Russian separatists in the area. Russia quickly annexed 2 small parts of Georgia, drawing condemnation from all over the world.

Intriguingly, Putin was not president during the invasion. The Russian Constitution states that the president can only serve 2 consecutive terms, but sets no limit on the total number of terms one person can serve. Therefore, Putin took the role of Prime Minister, while his hand selected successor, Dmitry Medvedev served as president.

Upon Obama's election in 2008, he attempted to reset relations with Russia. They made little progress, most notably, to limit both country's nuclear arsenals. But Putin remained paranoid about United States intentions, and remained opposed to these new relations. He was particularly bothered by U.S. interventions in the Middle East, especially in Libya, 2011.

Putin publicly criticized Medvedev for not vetoing the action in the UN Security Council, and announced his candidacy for president, winning the 2012 election by a preposterous margin. He began his third term once again amid chaos, doubling down on his authoritarian governance style at home and his militaristic strategy abroad. In both cases, he displayed a mastery of information.

Since he first took office in 2000, Putin kept a tight leash on Russian television. Essentially, all news outlets are state owned propaganda machines. His regime decided which stories air, how they were depicted, always focusing on Putin as "the strong Russian leader."

In 2012, he cracked down on human rights and civil liberties, with claims that "there was no room for dissent in his Russia." Using state television for example, he administered a blistering campaign against a feminist and gay rights music group, Pussy Riot.

Putin also bolstered his aggressive foreign strategy, which involved using military methods such as sending weapons and fighter planes to help dictator, Bashar al-Assad fight a bloody civil war in Syria. However, Putin's regime developed and fostered the most effective cyber army in the world, and he has used it to wreak havoc in the west.

Hackers were reported to have stolen classified United States information, hacked politicians' email accounts, and even shut down Georgia's internet while Russian trooped invaded. They undoubtedly attempted to sabotage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016.

Russian hackers launched propaganda campaigns in support of right-wing candidates in Europe. With this, Putin hoped to exploit and deepen the political divide in Western democracies.

In 2014, the Putin vision culminated in the targeting of Ukraine, another former Soviet country. Ukraine's president was opening up to the west and Putin feared he would join NATO. Russian hackers launched a propaganda campaign against him, stoking protests in the pro Russia, eastern section of the country.

He sent in disguised Russian troops and before long, violence erupted. The Russian military invaded and in early 2014, Putin annexed Crimea. He continued to support the violence in Ukraine and as of 2007, over 9,000 people died.

The world erupted in protest, but Putin didn't stand down. His invasions prompted harsh sanctions from the west, barring Russian businesses from trading in Western markets. Russian currency plummeted in value and the energy industry that Russia relied on was collapsing.

However, the election of Donald Trump brings new hope for the Putin vision. Trump's rhetoric has been notably soft on Russia, he could lift sanctions and weaken NATO, potentially freeing up space for Putin's Russia to become a dominant power once again. Many believe that Vladimir Putin was instrumental in Trump's election for this purpose.