Putin’s eternal reign

Trump, Biden will die. Putin will still be in power. Most probably.

I find it fascinating trying to comprehend this part of modern history we’re living through.

Putin came to power in 1999. I was still a teenager then. I had just finished school. I was studying in England, but spending my summer break in Moscow, my home city. I met my girlfriend then — now my dear wife of more than 20 years. She’s a little younger than me so she too was a teenager of course.

My parents were younger then than I am now. My oldest son is now approaching college. Now imagine if you were born in Russia in the late 1990s. If Putin is part of my identity (whether I like him or not!) — think of them. He’s is at the same level at Mommy and Daddy for them.

I remember exactly how Putin appeared on Russia’s political scene. In early September of 1999, there was a series of explosions in Russia — terrorist attacks linked to the war in Chechnya. They reduced residential buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities to rubble, killing hundreds of people. Terror was knocking at the door of our homes. During those very days, I was going through another terrifying situation of a more personal nature about which I wrote recently (Kidnapping of my father). I had to stay at home day and night and watched a lot of TV. It was then when I, along with the rest of the country, saw Putin for the first time. As a freshly appointed prime minister and a new face in Russian politics, he was commenting on the attacks, and I was stunned by his brisk promise to…