Getty ImagesI will never forget New Year's Eve 1999.
I was working as a producer in the BBC's Moscow bureau. Suddenly, there was breaking news: Russian President Boris Yeltsin was stepping down.
His decision to resign surprised everyone, including the British press corps in Moscow. When the news broke, there was no reporter in the office. This meant that I had to step in to write and broadcast my first broadcast at the BBC.
“Boris Yeltsin always said that he would serve out his full term in office,” she wrote. “Today he told the Russians he changed his mind.”
That was the beginning of my career as a reporter.
The beginning of Vladimir Putin assuming the presidency of Russia.
After Yeltsin's resignation, in accordance with the Russian Constitution, Prime Minister Putin became acting president. Three months later, he won the elections.
Upon leaving the Kremlin, Yeltsin's parting instructions to Putin were: “Take care of Russia!”
Getty ImagesI found myself remembering these words of Yeltsin more and more as Russia's war on Ukraine approached its three-year mark.
This is because President Putin's all-out invasion of Ukraine had devastating consequences.
Primarily for Ukraine, which witnessed massive destruction and losses in its cities. Nearly 20% of its territory has been occupied and 10 million of its citizens have been displaced.
But also for Russia:
I have been writing about Putin since he came to power a quarter century ago.
On December 31, 1999, who would have thought that Russia's new leader would still be in power two and a half decades later? Or will Russia today wage war on Ukraine and confront the West?
ReutersI often wonder whether the course of history would have been radically different if Yeltsin had chosen someone else to succeed him. The question, of course, is academic. History is full of possibilities and possibilities.
There is one thing I can say for sure: over twenty-five years, I have seen a different Putin.
And I'm not the only one.
“The Putin whom I met, did good business with, and set up a NATO-Russia Council with, is very different from this almost megalomaniac at the moment,” former NATO chief Lord Robertson told me in 2023.
“The man who stood next to me in May 2002, right next to me, and said that Ukraine was an independent, sovereign nation-state and would make its own decisions on security, is now the man who says (Ukraine) is not a nation-state.
“I think Vladimir Putin has a very thin skin and great ambition for his country. The Soviet Union has been recognized as the second superpower in the world. Russia cannot make any claims in that direction. I think that has eroded it.” “His arrogance.”
This is one possible explanation for the change we have seen in Putin: his burning ambition to “make Russia great again” (and make up for what many see as Moscow’s defeat in the Cold War) sets Russia on an inevitable collision course with Russia. Its neighbors – and with the West.
The Kremlin has a different interpretation.
From the speeches he gives and the comments he makes, Putin appears driven by resentment and an overarching feeling that Russia has been lied to and disrespected for years, and that its security concerns have been ignored by the West.
But does Putin himself believe that he fulfilled Yeltsin's request to “take care of Russia?”
I recently had the opportunity to find out.
More than four hours into his lengthy press conference at the end of the year, Putin invited me to ask a question.
“Boris Yeltsin asked you to take care of Russia,” she reminded the president. “But what about the huge losses in the so-called 'special military operation', the Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, the sanctions, and high inflation. Do you think you cared about your country?”
President Putin replied: “Yes.” “And I just didn't care. We pulled back from the brink.”
He portrayed Yeltsin's Russia as a country that was losing its sovereignty. He accused the West of “patting Yeltsin on the shoulder” while he “used Russia for his own purposes.” But he said Putin “is doing everything to ensure that Russia is an independent, sovereign state.”
Presenting himself as a defender of Russian sovereignty: Is this a view he brought in retroactively to try to justify the war in Ukraine? Or does Putin really believe that this takes into account modern Russian history?
I'm still not sure. not yet. But I feel like it's a key question.
The answer to this question may affect how the war ends – and the direction Russia takes in the future.
