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EMPIRE OF TERROR
25 years ago today Vladimir Putin took power… but his brutal mafioso regime is only ever ONE STEP away from collapse
Watch an exclusive interview about the Russian's time in power below
SOME 25 years ago today Vladimir Putin seized power - but despite his tyrannical rule his fragile regime always sits just one step from collapse.
The bloodthirsty tyrant could go the way of his deposed Syrian dictator pal Bashar al-Assad if he isn't able to win the war in Ukraine and continue extending his regime's blood-soaked tentacles abroad.
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On New Year's Eve 25 years ago Putin became president and has ruled with an iron fist ever since.
The swaggering KGB thug - then 47, now 72 - took over from the weak and booze-soaked Boris Yeltsin.
And despite originally trying to build bridges with the West, he proceeded to put Russia into a screeching reverse gear.
Over the next quarter of a century he veered the world back into a mire of distrust and put it on the brink of war - drawing the Iron Curtain closed once again just like the darkest days of the Cold War.
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He has survived a coup attempt, widescale protests, mercilessly killed his enemies, invaded his neighbours and launched the biggest war in Europe since WW2.
But it is believed that despite his iron grip - Putin's empire is still built on foundations of sand and could slip through his fingers.
Vlad's great paranoia at the foundation of much of what he does is his deepseated fear of being deposed, dragged through the streets and killed - much like defeated Libyan dictator Gaddafi.
It will be a fear that will have been reignited after he was left with no choice but to offer shelter to dictator Assad - who was driven out of Syria in a lightning revolution.
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On announcing he was stepping down, Putin's predecessor Yeltsin slurred: "I am leaving. I have done all I could."
Yeltsin told Putin to "take care" of Russia.
Watch moment Putin appears to confirm his secret CHILDREN as he makes bombshell unguarded slip about his ‘little ones’
In response, Putin addressed Russia for the first time vowing to keep the country's freedoms.
He said: “The freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the freedom of the media and property rights, these fundamental principles of a civilized society will be protected by the state."
But Putin has systematically crushed the Russian people's liberties as he has sought to keep himself in power.
Vlad has been so successful that he has seen eight British prime ministers and five US presidents in office.
Russia's sovereignty, its strength, has been Putin's core mission in power.
When Putin speaks now he is full of resentment and anger and claims Russia has been lied to and disrespected by the West.
Other than staying in charge and enriching himself, the crafty leader has looked to expand borders to restore Russia as a great power.
He has been accused of being more like a mob boss than a president.
The tyrant defended his 25 years in power to the BBC just days ago, saying Russia had almost been destroyed when he took over.
He said: "I think we've pulled back from the edge of the abyss... we were heading towards a complete total loss of sovereignty."
Always a megalomaniac
Dr Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told The Sun thatPutin had started out his reign seemingly normal, but the megalomania had always been there.
He said: "You don't really know anyone until they assume that position of power."
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Mendoza said Putin spent the early years of his reign cementing himself in power and fighting the oligarchs who had put him there.
"It suggested there was always within him, firstly, a stripe of ruthlessness, and secondly a sense of knowing what he wanted to do, which way he wanted to take the country," he said.
Putin, Mendoza said, had since made himself the "ultimate arbiter of Russia's interests" and had been able to reveal the tyrannical monster we know today.
"There are people who've got large business interests, but they exist purely at Mr. Putin's pleasure, and anyone who's gone against him, he's crushed ruthlessly."
To rule, Putin has relied on pals in the siloviki - the secretive spy class he hails from - which has been likened to mafia-rule.
These officials count themselves as allies of Putin who have an "enduring loyalty" to the dictator.
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Many even come from the KGB and spent time in East Germany with Putin.
Mendoza said: "They know that they go together, they survive together, they stay in power together, or they will all hang together."
But it hasn't been all plain sailing and Putin's rule has been threatened in the last couple of years.
In March, the terror attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow by ISIS-K members killed 145.
The attack was revenge for Russia fighting wars in the Middle East.
In December, pal Bashar al-Assad was swept from power when his army gave up in the face of an offensive by militants.
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Vlad has sought to make Russia stronger abroad by fighting in Africa and the Middle East.
But the military could pose a threat to his rule at home.
Last year, Putin was almost kicked from power by Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner group after the mercenary launched a coup.
Mendoza said: "I think what the Prigozhin's march told us was that the regime is only ever one step away from disaster, one step away from falling, and although Putin may have a superficial control over intelligence over the business community if a real threat emerges to his power, it's very unclear whether he'd survive it."
The Russia expert said that Putin was now less secure than he was five years ago as he hadn't been able to achieve the decisive victory he pledged to in Ukraine.
"I think the main problem he faces right now is that he's not won the war in Ukraine," Mendoza said.
"He promised he would win, and in a sense, for all the propagandizing and for all the storytelling, ordinary Russians will know that something is awry when Ukrainian drones strike Moscow."
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Succession
Another crisis point Putin could face is his succession.
Mendoza says the Russian has enough strength to keep himself in power for life and will continue to crush any opposition.
Unlike Assad, Putin has any army that is willing to fight for him, like it prepared to do against Prigozhin.
But, the traditional Russian way to remove a leader is a palace coup,
Mendoza said: "How he would actually go, of course, would be that, within his circle somebody decides he has failed in some way, shape, or form.
"One minute he's there and one minute he isn't.
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"But I think that's less likely right now, given the people who are the most likely to launch the coup are his allies, anyway."
With Putin's succession unclear, wannabe leaders jockeying for power could prove a future crisis point.
Most of his allies are of a similar age and Putin has not made clear about founding a dynasty.
Mendoza said: "The Putin children are kept firmly away from the public gaze, and there's no suggestion that any of them are going to be coming forward to rule with Daddy."
With a successor unclear, if Putin were to die suddenly it could even spark a civil war.
He said: "It [the system] is very much based on Putin's own personal power and there is obviously the potential for a collapse.
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"If he dies and this is unclear, it might be warfare between various factions who might want to take over."
Mendoza said to stay in power Putin has to continue making Russia look powerful abroad and win in Ukraine.
He said: "If he comes away with something that he can say is a victory, then I would expect him to continue along the lines of trying to expand Russia's borders and find other places maybe Moldova, maybe even having a push into the Baltic States.
"He has for the last few years set himself out to be the you know, the restorer of the Soviet Empire."
Mendoza said Vlad was now relying on foreign policy successes as the domestic economy was weak.
"He's only one massive oil price cut away from economic disaster internally."
Turn to megalomania
Former Nato chief Lord Robertson that "megalomaniac" Putin had once seemed like a different man.
Robertson said: "The man who stood beside me in May 2002, right beside me, and said Ukraine is a sovereign and independent nation state which will make its own decisions about security, is now the man who says that [Ukraine] is not a nation state."
When the pair first met in 2000, the then-Secretary General said Putin wanted to integrate Russia with the defence alliance.
Putin told Robertson: "'I want to resume relations with NATO. Step by step, but I want to do it.
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"And he said, ‘I want Russia to be part of Western Europe. It’s our destiny.’"
Robertson thinks Putin's change of face could come from his inner circle's isolation - that they began to believe their own propaganda.
Robertson said: "I think that Vladimir Putin has a very thin skin and a huge ambition for his country.
"The Soviet Union was recognised as the second superpower in the world. Russia can't make any claims in that direction. And I think that ate away at his ego."
Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as Putin's prime minister from 2000 to 2004, says Putin is unrecognisable from when he knew him.
Kasyanov told : "He is now a completely different person in his behaviour, as well as his political attitudes.
"We were building a democratic state and moving closer to Europe and the western world.
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"Putin was only pretending to be an adherent of democratic principles. But he remained a KGB agent inside."
Crushing dissent
To stay at the top, Putin has crushed opposition, manoeuvred around laws, and rigged elections.
After the first eight years as president of Russia, Putin stepped down to become a prime minister - only to avoid violating the limit of two consecutive terms in the Kremlin.
A long list of influential Russians have died in murky circumstances throughout Putin's rule.
The assassinations - from poisonings to shootings, falling from windows to plane crashes - paved his way to power in blood.
He even targeted people in Britain, targeting former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia with the deadly nerve agent Novichok in the 2018 Salisbury Poisonings.
A number of politicians, journalists, and lawyers have also been assassinated by Vlad's goons in the KGB.
Putin's most formidable opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, died in February in the strict-regime Polar Wolf jail in the Russian Arctic while serving a 19-year sentence on trumped-up "extremism"; charges.
Navalny was believed to have been killed with one punch to the heart after being forced to spend hours in freezing temperatures.
Experts said the brutal method was once a "hallmark of the KGB".
Endlessly vocal Putin critic and the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, died in August last year in a fireball private jet crash, according to Russia's investigative committee.
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He was a close confidant of Putin before he launched a rebellion in June last year, vowing to "punish" Russia for a deadly missile attack on one of his training camps in eastern Ukraine.
Putin blasted the uprising as a "mortal blow" to Russia and "a knife in the back of our people".
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Putin confirms secret children in bombshell slip
VLADIMIR Putin revealed he has a pair of young sons, in a surprising moment during his 2024 live TV press conference.
The Russian tyrant revealed he enjoys watching films with his "little ones" amid claims he has a pair of young sons with Olympic gymnast lover Alina Kabaeva.
Vladimir Putin let slip the biggest hint of his potential offspring so far during a marathon televised question and answer session in Moscow today.
Rumours over secret sons have surrounded the despot for years after independent journalists uncovered a potential fresh family growing.
The unverified claims say the ageing tyrant and long-term partner Kabaeva - a woman decades younger than him - actually have boys already.
Ivan, 9 and Vladimir, 5, are said to be the latest two additions to the Putin family tree.
He has never confirmed these children with the Kremlin officially stating he has just two daughters - Maria Vorontsova, 39, and Katerina Tikhonova, 38.
A third secret child is also said to exist known as DJ Luiza Rozova, 21, - given to Vlad by former cleaner Svetlana Krivonogikh.
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