Vladimir Putin rose out of Soviet deprivation to the pinnacle of influence in the new Russian nation. He came to office in 2000 as a reformer, cutting taxes and expanding property rights, bringing a measure of order and eventually prosperity to millions whose only experience of democracy in the early years following the Soviet collapse was instability, poverty and criminality. On the other, Putin has ushered in a new authoritarianism - unyielding in its brutal repression of dissent and newly assertive politically and militarily in regions like Crimea and the Middle East.