Puden's Rise to Power

Aliza: Can you talk a little bit about poten's rise to power? Like, why has he been president for so long? Was he democratically elected? What's the deal? Poten: In 19 99, ten years after communism collapsed in eastern europe, and eight years after the soviet union dissolved. The nineties were just dreary as hell for russia. And puden was basically now in one of the most powerful positions when the first presidential elections of the early two thousands took place in russia.