epa07764443 (FILE) - Russian President Vladimir Putin (C-R) dances with Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl (C-L) during her wedding to Austrian businessman Wolfgang Meilinger in Gamlitz, Austria, 18 July 2018 (issued 09 August 2019). Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been holding offices in political leadership since 1999 and is serving his fourth term as president of Russia. A Leningrad-born former KGB officer who served in East Germany, Putin headed the agency that became the FSB after the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union between 1998-1999. The same year, he became prime minister and then in 2000 president following the resignation of his sponsor, Boris Yeltsin. As the Russian constitution barred him from running for a third consecutive term, Putin?s close ally Dmitry Medvedev was elected his successor and Putin appointed PM. Putin's presidency has seen significant economic growth and the application of economic sanctions from abroad in response to the Ukraine crisis; the rise and decay of the five BRICS countries in world politics; close ties with former Soviet states and geostrategic moves in bordering regions such as Crimea or South Ossetia. It has also been marked by domestic protests spearheaded by the likes of Pussy Riot activists and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as well as prominent Kremlin critics wounding up dead. Figures by independent pollster Levada Center show that Putin's approval ratings at no point fell below 60 percent. EPA-EFE/ROLAND SCHLAGER / POOL ATTENTION: This Image is part of a PHOTO SET