PETALING JAYA: In his 15 years at the helm, President Vladimir Putin has been no stranger to autocratic, if not oppressive and brutal moves to consolidate his grip on power and spread Russia’s influence.
After taking over from Boris Yeltsin in 1999, he introduced a so-called vertical power structure by abolishing the direct election of the governors of the country’s 83 regions and allowing Moscow to directly appoint them. This expansion of federal power took place in 2005.
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