Please note that this title mainly consists of content that is freely available on the internet, such as from the Wikipedia encyclopedia. In fact, Russians have a fondness for strong rulers. For centuries, they lived under the yoke of the tsars, endured the brutalities of Stalinism, and experienced communism with its apparatchiks. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, following years of scandals and a general sense of national weakness under President Yeltsin, the election of Vladimir Putin as President of Russia in 2000 appeared as a kind of new beginning. In reality, the bankrupt superpower transformed into a stable, authoritarian state during Putin's first presidency. Even after the end of his second term and the election of Dmitry Medvedev as Russian president, former intelligence officer Putin continued to be regarded as the most powerful man in Russia.