1975 After graduating with a law degree from Leningrad State University, 23-year-old Putin joins the KGB.
1985 Serves in East Germany "recruiting sources and assessing information," as he described it, until 1990; witnesses the decline of the Soviet empire firsthand.
June 1991 Appointed head of St. Petersburg city council's International Relations Committee, a body set up to attract foreign investment. In August, he quits the KBG and in 1994, becomes first deputy mayor of the city.
May 1998 Named as deputy chief of staff to ailing President Boris Yeltsin. In July promoted to director of the Federal Security Service, or FSB the KGB's successor organization and in March 1999 becomes secretary of the Security Council.
August 1999 Yeltsin appoints Putin as Prime Minister.
Sept. 1999 After a series of bomb blasts in Russia blamed on Chechen rebels, and a Chechen armed incursion into Dagestan, Putin orders Russian forces back into Chechnya.
Dec. 1999 Yeltsin steps down as President and selects Putin as his successor.
March 2000 Wins the presidential election with 53% of the vote.
August 2000 118 sailors die when the nuclear submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea. Putin waits almost two weeks before meeting the submariners' families.
August 2000 Takes control of the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament. A new law keeps out elected regional governors, reducing their clout.
April 2001 Gazprom, the state-controlled gas giant, takes over Russia 's only nationwide private TV broadcaster, NTV, which had been sharply critical of Putin.
June 2001 George W. Bush and Putin meet for the first time at a summit in Slovenia. Bush later says of the meeting: "I looked the man in the eye... I was able to get a sense of his soul."
Oct. 2003 Yukos oil mogul Mikhail Khodorkovsky is jailed for alleged fraud, forgery and tax evasion. Khodorkovsky had angered Putin by backing opposition parties.
Dec. 2003 Putin gains total control of the Duma after the pro-Kremlin United Russia party builds a constitutional majority following a landslide parliamentary election victory. International observers criticize the use of state media and taxpayers' money to promote pro-Putin parties.
March 2004 Putin cruises toward re-election.
Cooking The Rotten Apples [Sep. 04, 2003]
How do you tackle extortion in a country where it's part of the landsape? Put a tax on it.
Going For The Moguls [July 20, 2003]
Russia's richest man and largest oil firm are under investigation. Has the Kremlin declared open season on the oligarchs?
The News: It's All Good [[July 18, 2003]
Russian news programmes have a disturbingly familiar tone
Living on a Powder Keg [Feb. 7, 2003]
The forgotten link between Chechen terrorism and the war in Chechnya
From Russia, with Hate [Apr. 15, 2002]
With skinheads and neo-Nazis on the rise, the country is bracing for a wave of xenophobic attacks
Mogadishu at 60 Miles an Hour Arms merchants are once again doing brisk business after a rapid change of power in this tough town, but so far the peace has held
The Year of The Nuke A rundown of the world's nuclear powerhouses, and what to expect in the coming months
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After graduating with a law degree from Leningrad State University, 23-year-old Putin joins the KGB. 
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