1. Vladimir Putin
Let’s start with the man who is threatening to into a fiery hellscape, just so he can be king of the ashes, one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. After studying law at Leningrad State University (now Saint Petersburg State University) in 1970, and graduating in 1975, Putin’s ambitions would shift from law to the shifty world of counterintelligence when he joined the KGB after leaving university.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and briefly serving as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and secretary of the Security Council, his attention turned to politics. Eventually being appointed as prime minister in August 1999. Only four months later, Boris Yeltsin would resign as president and Putin would take the reigns of power, reigns he appears to never want to let go of.
Putin, and in turn Russia itself, have seen its influence on the political stage diminish over the course of the 21st century. With the encroachment of NATO bases near the Russian border, and many neighboring countries seeking to join this intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states, Putin feels cornered. As his increasingly European threatening, warmongering rhetoric continues just as the bombs and bullets continue to fly in Ukraine, few people know exactly how close Putin’s finger is to that big red button, and what, if anything, can be done to stop him.
