Vladimir Putin turns 70 today. Since he became Prime Minister of Russia in 1999, some of The Spectator’s greatest contributors have asked the perennial questions: who is Putin, and what does he want? We’ve compiled the following pieces from our fully-digitised archive. 

‘Joking with a nine-year-old boy at a televised awards ceremony by the Russian Geographical Society, President Vladimir Putin said: ‘The Russian borders don’t end anywhere.’’

Portrait of the Week, 1 December 2016

Appointment as Prime Minister 

‘Not surprisingly, given his background, Putin has a lugubrious and somewhat sinister manner.