It is December 31, 1999. Savage Garden is dominating global music charts and rugby fans are celebrating the Wallabies’ World Cup win.
The fallout from Australia’s failed republic referendum is boiling away as everyone sweats on something called the Y2K software bug.
Elsewhere, a man many people have never heard of — Vladimir Putin — is sworn in as Russia’s caretaker president.
Jump forward to 2025: Savage Garden broke up two decades ago, and the Wallabies have just lost every match on their recent European tour (even to Italy).
The republic debate has been consigned to the history books. Fears of ringing in the new millennium with a massive computer meltdown are long-forgotten.
And Putin? These days, pretty much everyone knows who he is.
Vladimir Putin has an international arrest warrant out against him for alleged war crimes, which makes travel abroad difficult. (Reuters: Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool)
King of his isolated castle
Putin has towered over politics in Russia since ascending to the country’s top office, initially as president for eight years, then as prime minister while that pesky thing called the constitution was altered to allow him to run again.
And since 2012, the president’s office is where he has stayed — these days, that line can almost be taken literally: Putin has an international arrest warrant out against him for alleged war crimes, which makes travel abroad difficult.
With every “election” (if that is what we are to call the fraud-fests Russia specialises in), the 73-year-old’s victory margin balloons to even more fantastical levels.
Last year, official results claimed Putin gained more than 88 per cent of the vote. That made-up figure would be more impressive, of course, if most of the president’s major political opponents had not been barred from running.
Still, there is no doubt that Putin remains popular in Russia.
Russia’s economy grew steadily each year after Vladimir Putin came to office — until 2014. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
A popular leader
He took over as president from Boris Yeltsin, who had led the country into capitalism after the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
But eight years later, for many Russians, life was worse. Severe inflation and a struggling economy meant their income was down in real terms.
Yeltsin, battling alcoholism, had begun slurring his words during some public appearances and was becoming an increasing source of national embarrassment.
Corruption was rife. As the Soviet Union dissolved, communism had given way to a kleptocracy. Private buyers snapped up previously state-owned assets — the birth of a ruling Russian class we now refer to as the oligarchs.
Yeltsin, who had championed democracy, was facing allegations that he had rigged the 1996 presidential election. His health was deteriorating, so he hand-picked a successor who would not prosecute him.
Enter Putin.
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Putin’s growing power
Russia’s economy grew steadily each year after Putin came to office, until 2014 — it has gone backwards since then.
In the past two-and-a-half decades, he has created a power vertical in the country where everybody from regional governors to the prime minister answers to him.
Putin now controls the judiciary, the media, everything. Sometimes, those who cross him even end up dead.
Many Russians perceive him as a strong leader who is prepared to stand up to his counterparts around the world.
Moscow is a military power again. It develops new weapons, intervenes in multiple conflicts abroad, and — under Putin’s watch — has invaded Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine.
During Putin’s tenure, the rights of women, ethnic minorities and LGBT people in the country have been eroded under the guise of promoting traditional values. (Reuters: Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel)
Life under autocracy
For some Russians, a sense of national pride has been restored.
Nevertheless, 26 years after Putin first became president, life in his autocracy can be difficult.
Socio-economic progress drops off drastically outside the major cities.
During Putin’s tenure, the rights of women, ethnic minorities and LGBT people in the country have been eroded under the guise of promoting traditional values.
Certain forms of domestic violence, for example, were decriminalised in 2017. People who publicly display support for the “international LGBT movement” can now be prosecuted as “foreign agents”.
But the country’s population is declining — an issue Putin inherited and has failed to fix. As of 2022, women who have 10 or more children get a financial bonus and a special award.
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Youth on his side
Becoming caretaker president capped a meteoric rise for Putin.
While he had held senior positions in charge of the country’s security council and spy agency, his profile got a massive boost when he was made one of Russia’s deputy prime ministers less than four months before Yeltsin handed him the top job.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Putin has not said if he will run when Russia’s next presidential “elections” are held in March 2030, but it is worth remembering this: if he does, he will still be younger than Joe Biden and Donald Trump were when they assumed office in 2021 and 2025, respectively.
And who knows? If the veteran Kremlin leader decides to throw his hat in the ring again, he might even increase that massive margin by a few more points.
