Headlines
Russia's Vladimir Putin says he is no tsar
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 2, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 2, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Putin denies being a tsar, asserting his presidency is elected. He faces accusations of autocracy but enjoys support for revitalizing Russia.
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was not a tsar, saying he had been elected by the Russian people to serve a certain term in office.
Putin, a former KGB officer who rose to power in 1999, was asked by a moderator at a conference in southern Russia if he felt like Russia's Tsar Alexander I, who negotiated the Congress of Vienna after the French Revolutionary Wars.
"No, I do not feel like that. Alexander I was an emperor. I am a president elected by the people for a certain term," he said.
After Putin was appointed as acting president by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, he won the 2000 presidential election and was re-elected in 2004.
In 2008, his protege Dmitry Medvedev was elected president and Putin served as prime minister before returning to the Kremlin in the 2012 presidential election and again in 2018 and 2024.
Many Western politicians accuse Putin of being an autocrat and a war criminal, something he denies. Political opponents, mostly abroad, say Putin has enslaved Russia in a corrupt dictatorship that will lead to strategic ruin.
His supporters say he has raised Russia up from its knees after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and enjoys broad popular support.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge/Lucy Papachristou; editing by Andrew Osborn)
A president is the elected head of a state or organization, responsible for leading and making decisions on behalf of the people or members.
The financial community refers to the network of individuals and institutions involved in the management, investment, and regulation of financial assets and services.
An international financial institution is an organization that provides financial support and advice to countries for economic development and stability.
Economic growth is the increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period of time, typically measured by GDP.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
