20 years of ruling Putin through 20 photographs

Vladimir Putin is about to fill 20 years of leadership in his country as president and as prime minister, leading geopolitical crises and leading sports events.

Bill Clinton was in the White House when former KGB agent first became president of Russia on December 31, 1999. In the 20 years since then, there have been three other presidents in the US and five British prime ministers, China reports.

From global conflicts and internal scandals to sports triumphs and propaganda photos, we bring you images that define Putin's power in two decades, the BBC writes.

Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister in August 1999, taking office by Boris Yeltsin.

The former KGB officer had already been appointed prime minister when Russia launched the second Chechen war in October 1999, in response to a series of deadly bombings in apartment blocks.

The start of his presidency was formed by conflict in Russia's quiet southern republic. Russian forces surrounded Chechen capital, Grozny. In 2003, the United Nations describes Grozny as the most devastated city on earth in the course of the siege.

Putin flew to Chechnya in March 2000, several months after the start of the second Chechen war

For years Russia was hit by militants ' attacks as the 2004 Beslan School siege in which 330 people died, most of them children.

President Putin did not officially finish combat missions in Chechnya by 2009.

Members of the Russian cabinet hold a minute of silence in September 2004 following the siege of Beslan School, in which militants killed more than 330 people.

Putin met the family of Kursk submarine commander but was sharply criticised at the time for his response to the disaster.

Putin was confirmed in office in the March 2000 presidential elections, and within months he was at the centre of a PR crisis. Kursk's submarine disaster left 118 members of the deceased crew. When Kursk sank in August 2000, it took days for Russia to inform the victims' relatives and the president did not return home from his Black Sea holiday.

US President George W Bush invited Putin to a state visit in 2001. The two traveled to Bush State in Texas during the trip.

In his first decade of office, Vladimir Putin was generally in good relationship with Western leaders, despite his criticism of their foreign policy.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (right) visited Russia in 2003 to discuss the situation in Iraq.

The queen also invited Putin to a state visit in 2003 the first Russian leader to visit him since 1874.

Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin and George W Bush are listed for a photo at the 2006 G8 summit in St Petersburg.

Russia hosted the first G8 summit in 2006, confirming its membership in the economic group.

Under Russia's constitution, Putin could not stay as president for a third consecutive term, so in 2008 he became prime minister for four years.

Few saw President Dmitry Medvedev as such, he was more like a Putin prosthesis taking over for his boss.

As prime minister, Putin visited the victims when the war with Georgia broke out

When Georgia sent its forces to regain control over the breakaway South Ossetia region in 2008, Russia invaded Georgia.

The brief war in August was an alarm call to the West, but it was Russia's movement in eastern Ukraine in 2014 that restored Putin's relations with Western leaders. Russia's capture and Ukraine's annexation of the Crime caused EU and US sanctions and brought its G8 membership suspension.

Analysing the Crimey Peninsula in Ukraine in 2014 brought dissatisfaction with opinion according to polls

When Putin attended a motor event in the annexed Crime in August 2019, Ukraine said it was a “severe violation of Ukraine's sovereignty”.

Talks resumed this month, five years after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, with President Voldymyr Zelensky, in an effort to end the fighting.

Putin's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad changed the course of Syrian Civil War

Four years in the Syrian civil war, Russia intervened to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, whose government was on the verge of collapse. Putin's decision to send Russian planes and armour changed the balance of power to the ground.

U.S. intelligence services say Russia intervened in the US elections in 2016.

Relations with the then prime minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, were clearly strained after Sergei Scripal's poisoning.

All his time in office, the Russian president has sought to control his and his country's image. A number of photographs published by the leader over the years have tried to show him as a strong man.

While the World Cup of 2018 was an international success, the doping scandal (use of drugs) caused Russia to be unable to participate in the next race in Qatar in 2022.