Putin’s Mission in the Russian Thermidor

By 1999, Russian society was exhausted by political and economic upheaval, and craved strong, stable government. Pauperisation, unemployment and violent crime added to the woes of a great nation already bowed by the humiliation of an imploded superpower. So profound was this mood among millions of ordinary Russians that they were willing to welcome any new autocracy or even dictatorship as the only hope of relief. The demoralised and under-funded armed forces, quagmired in the Caucasus campaign against the Chechen separatists, felt betrayed and abandoned after years of neglect under presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin and consequently turned to Colonel Putin, who was named in 1998 to head the Federal Security Bureau, the main successor agency to the KGB – for guidance.