Vladimir Putin's 25-year-long reign over Russia in photos

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Russian President Boris Yeltsin officially resigned on Dec. 31, 1999, anointing Vladimir Putin, then prime minister, as his successor.

Partially due to his hardline stance against terrorism and the successful conduct of the Second Chechen War, Putin won the March 26, 2000 presidential elections. He has held on to power ever since.

Putin's rise to power was marked by apartment bombings and a brutal war in Chechnya, while his first term as president saw him crushing the opposition, taking hold of nationwide TV outlets, and allowing the illicit enrichment of his allies and friends.

Putin's second term in office saw terrorist attacks on Russian soil and the killings of prominent opposition figures.

Putin's third, fourth, and fifth terms as Russia's president were marked by Russia's war against Ukraine and the descent of his country into totalitarianism.

This photo story lists 25 major events that define Putin's 25-year-long rule over Russia.

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`1999-2000 Battle of Grozny`

In the summer of 1999, Chechen militias conducted a raid into neighboring Dagestan, effectively launching the Second Chechen War. Three days later, Putin was appointed as the country's prime minister and de facto Yeltsin's successor.

Before being appointed acting president and immediately after, Putin oversaw the bombing and ground assault on Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic.

According to Amnesty International, 25,000 civilians were killed in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War, while the city of Grozny was said to be the most bombarded and destroyed city in Europe at that time. Russia installed a Chechen government headed first by Akhmat Kadyrov and then by his son Ramzan, who established an oppressive regional dictatorship infamous for torturing and executing those seen as unreliable.

Russian soldiers roll through the bombed city of Grozny, Russia, after intense fighting in the Second Chechen War on Feb. 15, 2000. (Antoine Gyori / Sygma via Getty Images)

The last of the Chechen civilians flee the town, taking their belongings with them from Grozny, Russia on Feb. 15, 2000. (Antoine Gyori / Sygma via Getty Images)

Then-acting Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with a Russian officer as he presents an ornamental hunting knife during an awarding ceremony in Gudermes, Russia, 30 kilometers east of Grozny, on Jan. 1, 2000. (AP Pool / AFP via Getty Images)

`2000 Kursk submarine`

On Aug. 12, 2000, Russia's Kursk submarine sank in the Barents Sea, with all 118 personnel on board being killed. Putin faced criticism for failing to pay attention to the disaster initially and for the authorities' incompetence and mishandling of the botched rescue efforts.

Putin's interview with U.S. TV anchor Larry King summed up the president's response. When asked by King what happened to Kursk, Putin responded "it sank" with a smile.

The wreck of the Russian submarine Kursk (K-141) is seen in a floating dock at Roslyakovo, Russia, on an unknown date. The nuclear-powered submarine sank when a torpedo exploded on board during naval exercises in the Barents Sea off northwestern Russia on Aug. 12, 2000, killing all 118 personnel on board. (Reddit)

A Russian boy stands by portraits of victims of the Kursk submarine disaster in their barracks during a first-anniversary memorial ceremony at the Kursk’s home base of Vidyayevo, Murmansk Oblast, Russia, on Aug. 12, 2001. (Sergey Karpukhin / AFP via Getty Images)

In September 2000, just months after his inauguration, Vladimir Putin was in a New York studio across from legendary TV anchor Larry King. When asked, "What happened with the submarine?" about the Kursk disaster that killed all 118 crew members, Putin responds with a smile, "It sank." (Screenshot / Social Media)

`2000 Putin's takeover of NTV channel`

On July 20, 2000, the Russian authorities struck a deal to acquire NTV, the largest TV channel independent from the Kremlin, from billionaire Vladimir Gusinsky in exchange for dropping a criminal case against him.

In the early 2000s, criticism of the Kremlin was eliminated on NTV, with Putin later destroying all independent media in the country.

Director Victor Shenderovich poses with life-size puppets of Russian political leaders on the set of the popular satirical television show "Kukly" (Puppets) in Moscow, Russia, on June 29, 2000. "Kukly" mocks the Russian political scene on the independent channel NTV. (Oleg Nikishin / Newsmakers)

Atmosphere in one of the newsrooms in Moscow, Russia, on April 4, 2001. Journalists who work for NTV go on strike to protest against the acquisition of the TV channel by Gazprom. (Antoine Gyori / Sygma via Getty Images)

Protesters cheer in support of the independent Russian NTV television station during a rally in Moscow, Russia, on April 7, 2001. Thousands of people gathered in the rain to show their support for Russia's only national independent television station in its fight against new owners. (Oleg Nikishin / Newsmakers)

`2002 Nord Ost`

On Oct. 23, 2002, Chechen terrorists took 912 hostages at Moscow's Dubrovka theater. A total of 132 hostages and 40 terrorists were killed. Most of the hostages died due to poison gas used by Russian security forces.

Russian Special Forces remove bodies from a besieged theater where Chechen guerrillas were holding hundreds captive in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 26, 2002. More than 100 captives died from an unspecified gas the special forces used to knock out the attackers before storming the building. (Anton Denisov / Itar Tass / Getty Images)

Relatives of hostages held by Chechen rebels in a Moscow theater hold banners reading "Stop the war in Chechnya" and "Do everything to save our children" during a demonstration in front of St. Basil's Cathedral near Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 25, 2002. (Kommersant / Getty Images)

Kristina Kurbatova's mother (CL) is comforted during the funeral of her 14-year-old daughter in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 30, 2002. Kristina was a member of the cast of the Nord-Ost show and one of 118 hostages killed during the storming of the theater captured by Chechen rebels. She died later at a hospital. (Alexander Nemenov / AFP via Getty Images)

Russian soldiers stand in front of a theater where hundreds of hostages were held by Chechen rebels in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 26, 2002. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

`2003 Khodorkovsky's arrest`

On Oct. 25, 2003, Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a political opponent of Putin, was arrested by Russian law enforcement officers.

The move was the beginning of a more authoritarian stage in the evolution of Putin's regime. Later Khodorkovsky, the owner of oil company Yukos, and many of his subordinates and associates were jailed.

Khodorkovsky was pardoned, released from jail and forced to move abroad in 2013.

Imprisoned former head of Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky stands in the defendant's box during his trial at a courthouse in Moscow, Russia, on July 15, 2004. Khodorkovsky is standing trial with a top associate, Platon Lebedev, whose arrest the previous July heralded the start of the so-called Yukos affair, widely seen as a political witch-hunt. (Tatyana Makeyeva / AFP via Getty Images)

Protesters hold pictures of former Yukos chief and Kremlin opposer Mikhail Khodorkovsky as they demonstrate against his arrest and imprisonment outside a courthouse in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 22, 2003. A Moscow court is set to decide whether to extend Khodorkovsky's imprisonment for another three months. (Maxim Marmur / AFP via Getty Images)

`2004 Beslan`

On Sept. 1, 2004, Chechen terrorists took 1,000 hostages at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. As a result, 334 hostages and 31 terrorists were killed.

The Kremlin used the Beslan hostage crisis as an excuse for a series of authoritarian reforms — including the cancelation of gubernatorial elections — that enabled Putin to further centralize and monopolize power.

This TV grab image taken from Russia's NTV channel on Sept. 7, 2004, shows a gunman walking as hostages sit in the gymnasium of the Beslan school in North Ossetia, Russia. Russia's NTV television aired a tape it said was made by the hostage takers, showing what appeared to be the first hours of the three-day-long crisis that ended in the deaths of 334 hostages and 31 hostage takers. (NTV / AFP via Getty Images)

A soldier covers the roof as volunteers survey the area after special forces stormed the school seized by Chechen terrorists in Beslan, Russia, on Sept. 3, 2004. (Oleg Nikishin / Getty Images)

People try to identify their relatives among the bodies of victims of the Beslan hostage crisis in the yard of a morgue in Vladikavkaz, Russia, on Sept. 5, 2004.(Viktor Drachev / AFP via Getty Images)

A woman cries in the ruins of the school gymnasium in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia, on Sept. 5, 2004. (Viktor Drachev / AFP via Getty Images)

`2006 Politkovskaya's murder`

Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a vehement critic of Putin's regime and that of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot dead in her building's elevator on Putin's birthday on Oct. 7, 2006.

Several Chechens have been convicted as perpetrators of the murder but the organizers have not been identified.

Independent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a highly respected and tireless investigative reporter and author, is pictured at work in this undated file photo. Politkovskaya, who was murdered on Oct. 7, 2006, devoted much of her career to exposing human rights abuses and other atrocities of the war in Chechnya, as well as the plight of Chechen refugees. (Novaya Gazeta / Epsilon / Getty Images)

Mourners place flowers on the grave of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya at Troekurovskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 10, 2006. Politkovskaya was shot four times in the elevator of her apartment building. (Fyodor Savintsev / Epsilon / Getty Images)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Green Vault in Dresden, Germany, on Oct. 10, 2006. Putin said the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya "must not go unpunished," as he sought to deflect growing criticism of his commitment to press freedom and human rights. (Jose Giribas / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

`2006 Litvinenko's murder`

Former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, who accused Putin of orchestrating the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings, was poisoned in the U.K. on Nov. 1, 2006 with polonium-210, a radioactive element.

The British police charged Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and current pro-Kremlin lawmaker, and businessman Dmitry Kovtun with murdering Litvinenko.

In 2016, a British court concluded that Putin and Nikolai Patrushev, the former head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), “probably” ordered Litvinenko’s assassination.

Alexander Litvinenko is pictured in the Intensive Care Unit of University College Hospital in London, U.K., on Nov. 20, 2006, in this image made available on Nov. 25, 2006. The 43-year-old former KGB spy, who died on Nov. 23, 2006, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of poisoning him. Litvinenko died after radioactive polonium-210 was found in his body. Russia's foreign intelligence service denied any involvement in the case. (Natasja Weitsz / Getty Images)

`2008 Georgia war`

As Putin reached his term limit, he picked his ally Dmitry Medvedev to take over the presidency. Under Putin and Medvedev, Russia invaded Georgia on Aug. 1, 2008 following deteriorating relations with pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

A ceasefire was concluded on Aug. 12 but Russian troops still occupy Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, which account for over 20% of Georgia's territory.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili addresses the nation from the president's office in Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 29, 2008, in this TV grab from Georgian Rustavi-2 channel. Saakashvili called on all the peoples of Georgia — Georgians, Abkhazians, and Ossetians — to unite into one nation and resist the influence of what he called "black" forces, a likely reference to Russia. (Rustavi-2 / AFP via Getty Images)

A convoy of Russian troops moves through the mountains toward Georgian troops in the South Ossetian village of Dzhaba, Georgia, on Aug. 9, 2008. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a "state of war" as his troops clashed with Russian forces over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. (Dmitry Kostyukov / AFP via Getty Images)

Firefighters attempt to extinguish fires in an apartment building after the area was bombed by Russian jets in Gori, Georgia, on Aug. 9, 2008. After declaring a ceasefire, Georgian forces withdrew from South Ossetia, leaving Russian forces in control of the region. (Cliff Volpe / Getty Images)

Georgian women watch a convoy of Russian armored vehicles escorted by Georgian police on the road from the flashpoint city of Gori to Tbilisi, near the village of Savsvebi, Georgia, on Aug. 15, 2008. (Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)

`2011-2013 protests`

In 2011-2013, tens of thousands of Russians protested against rigged parliamentary and presidential elections and Putin's increasing authoritarianism. These protests — led by Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin and others — were the largest opposition rallies in Russia since the 1990s.

The protests didn't achieve the intended results. Nemtsov was killed in 2015 near the Kremlin, Navalny was killed in prison in 2024, and Yashin was imprisoned and later released as part of the 2024 East-West prisoner swap.

Demonstrators gather on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 4, 2012. Protesters gathered during temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius exactly one month before the presidential election to oppose Vladimir Putin's bid to return to the Kremlin for an unprecedented third term as president. (Harry Engels / Getty Images)

Opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov (L) and Alexei Navalny attend a 'March of Millions' protest rally against Vladimir Putin's return in Moscow, Russia, on May 6, 2012. More than 250 people, including opposition leaders, were arrested. (Oleg Nikishin / Epsilon / Getty Images)

Russian police detain opposition supporters during a 'March of Millions' protest rally against Vladimir Putin's return in Moscow, Russia, on May 6, 2012. More than 250 people, including opposition leaders, were arrested. (Oleg Nikishin / Epsilon / Getty Images)

`2014 annexation of Crimea`

Following the EuroMaidan Revolution in Ukraine and the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian troops invaded Ukraine, effectively beginning the Russo-Ukrainian War, now in its 11th year.

Russian troops invaded Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula on Feb. 27, 2014. Later, Russia held a sham referendum and illegally annexed Crimea on March 18. It occupies the peninsula to this day.

Ukrainian activists rally in front of the Crimean parliament in Simferopol, Ukraine, on Feb. 26, 2014. (Vasiliy Batanov / AFP via Getty Images)

Russian soldiers, wearing no identifying insignia, patrol Simferopol International Airport after a Russia-backed crowd gathered near Simferopol, Ukraine, on Feb. 28, 2014. (Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a celebratory rally at Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on March 18, 2014, following the Russian annexation of Crimea, Ukraine. (Sasha Mordovets / Getty Images)

`2014 invasion of Donbas`

On April 12, 2014, fighters led by former Russian intelligence officer Igor Girkin captured the city of Sloviansk in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.

Later Russian proxies seized a number of other cities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts with active support from Russian troops that shelled Ukraine from across the border.

In August 2014, Russian regular troops launched a ground invasion of Ukraine's east, forcing Kyiv to sign the first Minsk Agreement on Sept. 5.

Portraits and uniforms of Ukrainian prosecutors burn outside the local Prosecutor's Office as Russia-backed militants attempt to capture the city and other parts of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on May 1, 2014. (Alexander Khudoteply / AFP via Getty Images)

Russian proxies rip apart a Ukrainian flag outside a regional state building in Donetsk, Ukraine, on May 29, 2014. (Viktor Drachev / AFP via Getty Images)

`2014 MH17`

On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by Russian forces over Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, with all 298 people on board being killed.

A Dutch court has established that the plane was downed by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile. Two Russians and one Ukrainian proxy working for Russia were convicted for the murder in absentia in 2022.

Debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 smolders in a field in Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on July 17, 2014. (Pierre Crom / Getty Images)

Members of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service search for bodies in a field near the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 near the village of Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on July 26, 2014. (Bulent Kilic / AFP via Getty Images)

Lawyers attend the judges' inspection of the reconstruction of the MH17 wreckage as part of the murder trial, ahead of the beginning of a critical stage, in Reijen, Netherlands, on May 26, 2021. (Piroschka van de Wouw / Pool / Getty Images)

`2015 Nemtsov's murder`

Opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in front of the Kremlin on Feb. 27, 2015.

Nemtsov was a critic of both Putin and the Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. A Russian court has convicted Zaur Dadayev, ex-top commander of Kadyrov’s Sever (North) police battalion, and several other Chechen fighters as part of the Nemstov murder case.

The identity of the person who ordered the assassination was not disclosed.

Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia, on March 29, 2010. (Dmitry Korotayev / Epsilon / Getty Images)

A tribute to Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered on Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 27, 2015. (Richard Radford / Getty Images)

`2015 intervention in Syria`

On Sept. 30, 2015, Russia launched its military intervention in Syria to prop up the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad. Russian troops actively conducted air raids against the opposition and terrorists from the Islamic State.

Russia was able to keep al-Assad in power until December 2024, when his regime collapsed following an offensive by the country's opposition.

Smoke rises after Russian warplanes strike the opposition-controlled town of Daret Ezza near Aleppo, Syria, on Oct. 13, 2015. (Mamun Abu Omer / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

People gather around the rubble of a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) near Maaret al-Numan in Idlib Province, Syria, on Feb. 15, 2016, after suspected Russian airstrikes. MSF confirmed the hospital was "destroyed in airstrikes." (Ghaith Omran / Al-Maarra Today / AFP via Getty Images)

Several hundred people gather near the Russian embassy in Damascus, Syria, on Oct. 13, 2015, holding up portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin to express support for Moscow's air campaign in Syria. Two missiles struck the embassy compound during the demonstration, sparking panic among the crowd. (Louai Beshara / AFP via Getty Images)

`2018 Skripal poisoning`

Former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived after being poisoned on March 4, 2018 in Salisbury, U.K., with Novichok, a nerve agent produced by the Russian government.

Dawn Sturgess, a British citizen, accidentally came into contact with the poison and died as a result. The British authorities identified Russian military intelligence agents using the passports of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Bashirov as suspects in the murder case.

Sergei Skripal (R), 66, and his daughter Yulia (L), 33, are seen in an undated photo. The two were found ill in Salisbury, U.K., in March 2018 after being poisoned with a nerve agent. (Social media)

Military personnel in protective suits cover two ambulances with tarpaulin before removing them from Salisbury ambulance station in Salisbury, England, on March 10, 2018. Sergei Skripal was granted refuge in the U.K. following a 2010 'spy swap' between the United States and Russia. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

`2020 constitutional amendments`

From June 25 to July 1, 2020, Russia held a rigged vote on constitutional amendments that eliminated limits on Putin's presidential terms, effectively making him dictator for life.

According to Russian-born election expert Alexander Kireyev, the vote was the most falsified one in Russian history up to that point. Based on a mathematical analysis of official data, he estimated the number of rigged votes to be 20 million.

The 2020 vote was surpassed by the 2024 presidential election, in which between 22 million and 31.6 million votes were rigged, according to election analysts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin enters the hall during a meeting with a group discussing amendments to the Constitution at the Novo-Ogaryovo State residence outside Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 13, 2020. A constitutional referendum was scheduled to take place in Russia by April 2020. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Moscow, Russia, on June 30, 2020. Approval in the vote concluding on July 1 will allow Vladimir Putin to seek two more six-year terms after his current one ends in 2024, potentially staying in power until 2036, when he would be 83. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

`2020-2021 poisoning and imprisonment of Navalny`

On Aug. 20, 2020, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned while traveling across Russia. After days of protest by his friends and family, he was flown for treatment to Germany while in a coma.

German doctors, as well as several independent labs in Europe, said that he had been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent — a chemical weapon produced by the Russian government.

A joint investigation by The Insider, Bellingcat, CNN, and Der Spiegel revealed that Navalny had been poisoned by agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service.

Despite the poisoning, Navalny decided to return to Russia on Jan. 17, 2021 and was jailed upon arrival on trumped-up charges.

German army emergency personnel load a portable isolation unit into their ambulance after transporting Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny to Charité Hospital in Berlin, Germany, on Aug. 22, 2020. Navalny arrived in Germany for treatment following a government-sponsored poisoning. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny sits upright in a hospital bed, wearing a gown, as he is hugged by his wife Yulia and flanked by his two children, in a photo posted on Navalny's Instagram account from Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 15, 2020. Navalny shared the image from Berlin's Charite hospital, where he was being treated after being poisoned with a nerve agent. (Instagram)

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears on a screen via video link from Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina detention center during a court hearing of an appeal against his arrest, in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 28, 2021. Navalny, 44, was detained on Jan. 17 after returning from Germany, where he recovered from a near-fatal poisoning, and was later jailed for 30 days for violating a suspended sentence from 2014. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

`2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine`

On Feb. 24, 2022, Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which became the deadliest war in Europe since World War II.

Russia's war against Ukraine led to hundreds of thousands of people being killed and even more injured.

In their initial push, Russian troops failed to take Kyiv, eventually pulling out of some of the occupied territories. After Russian troops withdrew, atrocious war crimes were uncovered by Ukrainian and international law enforcement.

The Bucha Massacre, mass graves in the liberated part of Kharkiv Oblast, torture chambers in Kherson, executions, and rape of the civilian population across Ukraine's north, east, and south was what Russia left behind.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his address to the nation at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 21, 2022. (Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Inhabitants of Kyiv leave the city following first missile strikes by the Russian Armed Forces against Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

Russian forces shot at a residential building during the siege of Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast. (Facebook)

People cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling and bombing, 10 days after Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, on March 5, 2022. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

(Graphic content) Bodies of civilians lie on Yablunska Street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 2, 2022, after the Russian army withdrew from the city. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)

`2022 first mobilization in Russia since World War II`

On Sept. 21, 2022, Putin launched the first mobilization of conscripts in Russia since World War II.

The decision followed Russia's rapid withdrawal from parts of Kharkiv Oblast due to a lack of manpower. The mobilization was completed on Oct. 28 but Putin's mobilization decree is still in force, allowing him to keep those already drafted on the front line in Ukraine.

More than 200,000 people reported for service under partial mobilization in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 4, 2022. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

`2023 ICC arrest warrant for Putin`

On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian official overseeing the forced deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia from the occupied parts of Ukraine.

This warrant is the first attempt to bring Putin to justice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova outside Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 16, 2023. (Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

`2023 Prigozhin's rebellion and death`

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, launched a rebellion against Putin on June 23, 2023.

Several thousand Wagner mercenaries took over the city of Rostov-on-Don and marched northwest toward Moscow. Short of reaching Moscow, Prigozhin concluded a deal with Putin on June 24 and halted the mutiny.

Two months later — on Aug. 23 — a private jet with Prigozhin on board crashed not far from Moscow, killing him and his associates. Independent analysts point to Putin as the most likely organizer of Prigozhin’s killing.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, leaves the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24, 2023. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A view of the site after a private jet, allegedly carrying Wagner mercenary group head Yevgeny Prigozhin and other passengers, crashed in Tver Oblast, Russia, on Aug. 23, 2023. (Wagner Telegram Account/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

`2024 Navalny's death`

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny died on Feb. 16, 2024 at the Polar Wolf penal colony in the town of Kharp, Yamal Nenets Autonomous District.

Independent experts and Western politicians say that Putin is personally responsible for Navalny's death. Some argue that Navalny was killed intentionally, while others believe he died due to harsh conditions and a lack of medical treatment.

A view of a spontaneous memorial in memory of the deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, organized at the monument to victims of political repression on Voskresenskaya Embankment, St. Petersburg, Russia on Feb. 16, 2024. (Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with workers at the AO Konar plant in Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 16, 2024, a few minutes after his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Putin had been informed about Alexey Navalny's death. (Contributor/Getty Images)

(L) Zahar Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, Maria Pevchikh, Odessa Rae, and Dasha Navalnaya attend the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, on March 12, 2023, less than a month after Alexei Navalny death. (Cindy Ord/VF23/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

`2024 Crocus Hall terrorist attack`

On March 22, 2024, a group of terrorists attacked the Crocus City Hall, a concert venue in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk, shooting people and setting the hall on fire.

At least 145 people were killed, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia since 2004. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the shooting.

A photo alleging to show the Crocus City Hall on fire in Moscow, Russia, on March 22, 2024. (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)

People light candles in honor of the victims of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, Russia, on March 23, 2024. (Contributor/Getty Images)

Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle to commemorate those killed in the Crocus City Hall concert hall terrorist attack in Moscow, Russia, on March 24, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

`2024 First invasion of Russian territory since World War II (Kursk operation)`

Following setbacks on the eastern front, Ukrainian troops entered Russia's Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, 2024 — the first major invasion of Russian territory since World War II.

Ukraine still controls part of the region's territory.